FOREIGN INVASIONS AND THEIR IMPACT

FOREIGN INVASIONS AND THEIR IMPACT
In north-western India, the Mauryas were succeeded by a number of ruling dynasties from Central Asia, as the successors of Asoka were too weak to give a challenge to invasions.

THE INDO-GREEKS Small colonies of Asiatic Greeks had been settled in Bactria by the Achaemenids, and these were strengthened by settlements established by Alexander and Seleucus Nicator. About the middle of the third century Be, Bactria became independent of the Seleucid Empire. Around 200 BC a Bactrian king Euthydemus began to expand over the Hindukush, and gained a foothold on the North-Western Frontier, which had probably already broken away from the Mauryan Empire. Early in the second century Be, Demetrius, the son and successor of Euthydemus, pressed farther into India. He and his successors occupied m'ost of the 41dus valley and the Punjab, and led great raids far into the Ganga valley, at least one of which, perhaps led by kin~ Menander, reached Pataliputra. Soon the home domains 6f the Bactrian Greeks were wrested from them by the Eucratides, but descendants of Euthydemus contin­ued to rule in Punjab and parts of the north-west, and came to be known as the Indo-Greeks. Then the Eucratides were also tempted to try their fortunes beyond the mountains and gained control of the Kabul valley and the district of Taxila. The Greek domains in India were divided into several petty kingdoms.

Little is known of the history of the Greeks in India, and their fortunes can only be faintly reconstructed from their remarkable coins, most of which bear legends in Greek on one side and in Prakrit on the other. The Indo-Greeks were the first rulers in India to issue coins which can be definitely attributed to the kings, and also the first to issue gold coins in India. The Greek rule introduced features of Hellenistic art in the north-west frontier of India as the outcome of the Greek contact with non-Greek conquered peoples after Alexander's death. Gandhara art was its best example in India.

From now on, the Yavanas are mentioned from time to time in Indian literature. Through the Graeco-Bactrian kingdoms western theories of astrology and medicine began to enter India, and perhaps the development of the Sanskrit drama was in part inspired by this source. The Greeks introduced the use of curtain (yavanika in Sanskirt) in the Indian theatre. Many Indian texts speak of great Yavana raids.
One of the Greek kings of Punjab is specially remem­bered by Buddhism as the patron of the philosopher-monk Nagasena; this was Milinda or Menander, who ruled at Sakala (Sialkot), and whose long discussions with the sage are recorded in the Pali text, Milinda-Panho. Menander is said to have become a Buddhist.

The Besnagar column shows that the Greeks also sometimes supported the ortho­dox creeds. It was erected by the ambassador of Antialkidas, Heliodorus, at the court of Shunga ruler Bhagabhadra, in honour of the early Vaishnavite deity, Vasudeva. Thus some of the Greeks, while not completely merging with the local population, soon felt the influence of Indian ways of thought and made many compromises with Indian culture. Manu, writing probably a century or two later than Heliodorus, describes the Yavanas as degenerate kshatriyas, and gives them a place in Hindu society.