The State in Ancient India: A Study in the Structure and Practical Working of Political Institutions in North India in Ancient Times c21.67.4

c21.67.4

The effort of Seleucus to revive the glories of the great Macedonian empire ended in failure. The Greeks who appeared on the Indian scene after Seleucus were themselves fast losing touch with the mainsprings of Greek life. At last the rise of Parthia, one of the central events in the history of the Middle East, cut them off almost completely from the centres of Hellenism. Then the Hindu capacity for assimilating foreign elements told with decisive effect. The Indo-Greeks ceased to be Greek and became Indian. Whatever their original political ideals, they were cast aside in favour of Hindu tradition. When all the evidence on administrative practices from coins, inscriptions, literature and foreign accounts is put together, it shows nothing which was Greek in origin or which assumed its historical form under Greek influence. In a like manner the Scythians and others who entered India after the Greeks and who were rapidly Hinduised exercised little influence on the development of institutions in ancient India.