Legacy of The Indo-Greeks - Political Legacy

Political Legacy

The 36 Indo-Greek kings known through epigraphy or through their coins belong to the period between 180 BCE to 10–20 CE. There are a few hints of a later Indo-Greek political presence in the Indian subcontinent.

Theodamas, known from an inscription on a signet, may have been an Indo-Greek ruler in the Bajaur area in the 1st century CE.

In the 3rd century, the Scythian Western Satraps seem to have relied on Greeks, such as Yavanesvara ("Lord of the Greeks"), who may have been organized in more or less independent poleis.

Some sort of Greek political organization is thought to have existed in the first half of the 4th century after the rule of the Satavahanas. This is also suggested by the Puranas (the Matsya Purana, the Vayu Purana, the Brahmanda Purana, the Vishnu Purana, the Bhagavata Purana) which give a list of the dynasties who ruled following the decline of the Satavahanas: this list includes 8 Yavana kings, thought to be some dynasty of Greek descent, although they are not otherwise known. According to one theory however, the Southern Indian dynasty of the Chalukyas was named after "Seleukia" (the Seleucids), their conflict with the Pallava of Kanchi being but a continuation of the conflict between ancient Seleukia and "Parthians", the proposed ancestors of Pallavas.