077: The Indo-Greeks - Invasion of the Yavanarajas

The Hellenistic Age Podcast

History

4.7 • 558 Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2022

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With the collapse of the Mauryan Empire, the rulers of Greco-Bactria would seize the opportunity to invade India in approximately 185 B.C. Famous conquerors like Demetrius and Menander would campaign throughout the subcontinent, seizing the lands of Arachosia and Gandhara (southern Afghanistan and Pakistan) as their new domains, the so-called "Indo-Greek" kingdoms. Despite the hostilities, the Indo-Greeks would quickly acclimate to their new cultural environment: figures like Heliodorus, a Greek ambassador from Taxila and worshipper of Vasudeva-Krishna, or Sophytos, an Indian merchant from Alexandria-in-Arachosia who prided himself on his knowledge of Homer and Callimachus, provide hints of the complex interactions between the Hellenistic world and South Asia. Episode Notes: (https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/2022/07/28/077-the-indo-greeks-invasion-of-the-yavanarajas/) Episode 077 Transcript: (https://hellenisticagepodcast.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/077-the-indo-greeks-invasion-of-the-yavanarajas-transcript.pdf) The Hellenistic Far East Map 4 - The Indo-Greek Kingdoms (https://hellenisticagepodcast.files.wordpress.com/2022/07/the-indo-greek-kingdom-map-4.pdf) Social Media: Twitter (https://twitter.com/HellenisticPod) Facebook (www.facebook.com/hellenisticagepodcast/) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/hellenistic_age_podcast/) Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/hellenisticagepodcast) Show Merchandise: Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/HellenisticAgePod) Redbubble (https://www.redbubble.com/people/HellenisticPod/shop?asc=u) Donations: Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/hellenisticagepodcast) Amazon Book Wish List (https://tinyurl.com/vfw6ask)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi there. You're listening to the Hellenistic Age podcast. Episode 77, the Indo-Greeks invasion of the Yovana Rajas Despite the collapse of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom in the mid to late second century BC, their successors, and in some cases rivals, continue to prosper in India. The Indo-Greeks, a term coined by the scholar Awadkishore Narayan in his landmark book of the same name,
0:45.3	refers to the political successors of the Greeks of Bactria that establish themselves in an area
0:50.3	approximating to southeastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northwestern India.
0:56.0	These kingdoms, for there was not just one, lasted from roughly 185 BC until the early 1st century AD,
1:04.0	decades after the traditional ending date of the Hellenistic period with Cleopatra's death.
1:09.0	Much to our misfortune, we are left with even
1:12.2	less information and sources on the Greek rulers of India than those of Bactria. Conversely, we
1:18.6	gain access to a collection of various Indian authors and inscriptions which, when used with caution,
1:24.5	provide us with a more complicated view on the nature of Hellenism.
1:28.6	Prior to the 4th century BC, the Greeks understood very little about India, a place which
1:34.4	was perceived to be at the ends of the earth. Tales from early authors like Herodotus,
1:40.2	Tisius, or Hecateus suggests a land of riches or a sort of primitivist utopia, along with
1:46.9	a collection of outlandish creatures like people with dogs heads or gold-dicking ants.
1:53.1	Relying on these accounts to get an accurate picture of India during this period may be
1:57.0	about as useful as relying on mythological stories of Heracles or Dionysus, who were said
2:02.4	to have visited India in the ancient past, but they no doubt formed the basis of what later
2:07.0	travelers envisioned as what lay beyond the mountain range of the Hindu Kush.
2:11.8	Most of this early information would be received by the Greeks from second and third-hand
2:16.1	sources from the Persian Empire, which absorbed Gandhara and turned into a satrap received by the Greeks from second and third-hand sources from the Persian Empire,
2:18.5	which absorbed Gandhara and turned into a satrapi by the time of Darius I.
2:24.4	According to Greek tradition, Darias commissioned an Ionian sailor named Skylex of Karyanda
2:29.9	to sail down the Indus River in approximately 515, who later published a report on his findings,
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