Who Were the Indo Revised for Pub

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International Conference on Greek Studies: An Asian Perspective

(25th - 28th Feruar! 2"#$%

&r'anied !

Greek Chair School of )an'ua'e* )iterature + Culture Studies

,aaharlal .ehru /niversit!.e 0elhi-##""1

In collaoration ith

Indian Council of Social Science 3esearchIndian Council of 4istorical 3esearch

India International Centre* Asia Proect67ass! of Greece* .e 0elhi

:enue:

,aaharlal .ehru /niversit!.e 0elhi-##""1

1



9e!note Address

4& 636 ;46 I.0&-G3669S<#

Frank Lee Holt

Socrates sought a wise man, and Diogenes an honest one. My own life’s work

has a humbler goal ! am looking for an !ndo"#reek. Such a man is more difficult to

disco$er than you might think, and after nearly forty years ! am beginning to belie$e

that, as with Socrates and his %uestions or Diogenes with his lam&, it is my e'&loring

rather than finding that will be remembered. Since the enigmatic !ndo"#reeks embody

most of the grand themes of this conference, ! wish to discuss some of the &roblems

inherent in our search for them. (o do so, we must first confront a few of the confusions

in our usage of the term. ! shall talk about the origins of the word !ndo"#reek and the

ha)ards of that little hy&hen hiding inside it. ! shall try to better define what an !ndo"

#reek might be, and then &ro&ose a new analysis of numismatic e$idence to hel& find

our elusi$e %uarry. *an this latest search succeed+ Light your lanterns and let us see.

(he &roblem with finding an !ndo"#reek is knowing what you are looking for. (he

term itself confounds our search. Does the word denote a Helleni)ed !ndian, an

!ndiani)ed #reek, an !ndian who emigrated to #reece, or a #reek li$ing in !ndia+ (hese

are not at all the same things. f course today, similar hy&henated terms such as

French"*anadian or !rish"-merican always &ut the culture of origin first, so that most

1 ! wish to thank the conference organi)ers, rof. /.. -rora and rof. -nil Singh,

for kindly in$iting me to com&ose this keynote address.

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&eo&le e'&ect !ndo"#reek to mean a &erson from !ndia residing in #reece. et, the

!ndo"#reeks to whom our books and lectures refer all remained in -sia. erha&s for that

reason the re$ersed term #raeco"!ndian has sometimes been tried.0 (he sonorous

rhythm of the modifier 2!ndo’ seems, howe$er, to fit so comfortably in the first &osition

that we ha$e settled u&on not only !ndo"#reeks, but also !ndo"Scythians, !ndo"

arthians, !ndo"3actrians, and occasional !ndo"4omans, all of whom ended u& in !ndia

rather than #reece, Scythia, arthia, 3actria, or 4ome. -s a sign"&ost, the term !ndo"

#reek can be terribly confusing.

(he word is e%ually frustrating as a descri&tor of culture. 3y what means and

measure must a #reek become !ndian, or an !ndian become #reek, in order to &roduce

someone identifiable as an !ndo"#reek+ -re we s&eaking only about kings, as

suggested by some e'&erts, or dare we e'&and the term to include the go$erning class

or e$en entire &o&ulations in South -sia+5 De&ending u&on our definitions, we see

different kinds of !ndo"#reeks circling our lam&s, darting in and out of the darkness.

0 -. *ourt, 2*oins and 4elics of Manikyala’, Asiatic Journal , 1657, &&. 8"19: ;.;.

(arn, The Greeks in Bactria and India, 0nd edn., *ambridge, *ambridge /ni$ersity

ress, 1871, &. 576: -.<. =arain, 2(he #reeks of 3actria and !ndia’, in -. -stin et al.

>eds.?, The Cambridge Ancient History @!!!, 0nd edn., *ambridge, *ambridge /ni$ersity

ress, 1868, &. 0A0.

5 See, for e'am&le, 4. (ha&ar and -. <uhrt, 2!ndo"#reeks’, in S. Hornblower and

-. S&awforth >eds.?, The Oxford Classical Dictionary Bth edn., 'ford, 'ford /ni$ersity

ress, 0C10, &. A5B.

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Some scholars consider the Demetrius who is called rex Indorum >2king of the !ndians’?

by ustinE(rogus >B1.9.B? to be an !ndo"#reek, but not that more famous king of the

!ndians named -shoka who set u& inscri&tions in #reek and sent emissaries to the

;est. ur use of the term !ndo"#reek is so ill"defined and inconsistent that Menander

can be described on consecuti$e &ages of the same book as both an 2!ndo"#reek king’

and 2a 3actrian #reek king.’B Sir Mortimer ;heeler, Director #eneral of -rchaeology in

!ndia, saw in his lam&light a land so filled with !ndo"#reeks that he actually called it

2!ndo"#raecia’ as though the subcontinent became a geogra&hic e'tension of #reece. 7

(he origins of our confusion lie in the origins of the word itself. Long before !ndo"

#reek became a noun denoting a &articular kind of historical &erson, the word was used

solely as an adecti$e to describe a certain class of ancient artifacts. !n the 18 th century,

the %uaint form 2!ndo"#recian’ was in$ented to signify material obects of a mi'ed #reek

and !ndian nature. 3y 1657, the term was so widely acce&ted that it a&&eared in such

di$erse &ublications as The !enny Cyclo"aedia of the #ociety for the Diffusion of $seful

%no&ledge, the Asiatic Journal and the accession re&orts of the 3ritish Museum. 9 For

B (. McG$illey, The #ha"e of Ancient Thought , =ew ork, -llworth ress, 0CC0,

&&. 5A9"5AA: cf. =arain, 2(he #reeks of 3actria and !ndia’, &assim.

7 M. ;heeler, 'lames o(er !erse"olis, =ew ork, 4eynal *om&any, 1896, &&.

190"195.

9 !enny Cyclo"aedia >1657? $olume 5, &. 075: . (od, 2!ndo"#recian -nti%uities’,

Asiatic Journal , $ol. 1A, 1657, &&. 8"01: Additions to the British )useum in

)DCCC***+ , London, 3ritish Museum, 1658, &. BB5.

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the most &art, !ndo"#recian described a ty&e of hybrid coin, usually bilingual and

sometimes rectilinear. 3ut usage of the term was inconsistent, allowing scholars to

describe as !ndo"#recian some coins with no !ndian characteristics at all, such as those

minted by Diodotus or Guthydemus. 4egardless of the loose criteria, only rarely was the

word !ndo"#recian transferred from these tangible artifacts to the &eo&le who made and

used them.A -n !ndo"#recian coin could easily be obser$ed, but an !ndo"#recian man

or woman could only be imagined. (his remained true as the term !ndo"#recian ga$e

way to !ndo"#reek at the dawning of the 0Cth century.

#radually, catalogues of !ndo"#reek coins began referring to !ndo"#reek

dynasties, and &redictably if nebulously these became &eo&led with !ndo"#reek kings

and their !ndo"#reek subects.6 (he culmination was at last an entire book, and not ust

any book but the magnum o&us of a great scholar, de$oted s&ecifically to a &eo&le

called The Indo,Greeks-. !t was none other than -.<. =arain who once and for all turned

A See, for e'am&le, . ;ilson, 23rief =otes on *ertain -ncient *oins’, Journal of

the Asiatic #ociety of Bombay , $ol- 5, 16B8, &. 108.

6 @. Smith, The /arly History of India Oxford , *larendon ress, 18CB: H.#.

4awlinson, Bactria0 The History of a 'orgotten /m"ire, 1810, re&rint edn. =ew ork,

-MS, 1898: 4.3. ;hitehead, Catalogue of Coins in the !an1ab )useum, Lahore

@olume !, !ndo"#reek *oins, 181B, re&rint edn. *hicago, -res, 1898.

8 -.<. =arain, The Indo,Greeks, 'ford, *larendon ress, 187A: this work is now

incor&orated into -.<. =arain, The Indo,Greeks 2e(isited and #u""lemented , Delhi,

3.4. ublishing, 0CC5.

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the numismatic adecti$e into a &ersonified noun. Since that time, the !ndo"#reeks ha$e

been here to stay. For instance, there was no entry for 2!ndo"#reeks’ in the first two

editions of the Oxford Classical Dictionary >18B8, 18AC?, but that is no longer the case

with the third >1889? and fourth editions >0C10?. (here are now books on our shel$es

about !ndo"#reek ewelry and !ndo"#reek theater.1C =arain could write without

contradiction in his Foreword to Dr. Sri$asta$a’s Catalogue of Indo,Greek Coins that

I(he ci$ilisation of the !ndo"#reeks is a $ery im&ortant cha&ter in the history of the

world.J11 thers ha$e written about something called Ithe !ndo"#reek dis&ositionJ10 as

the &eculiar state of mind of a &articular &eo&le, and a new book on early 3uddhist trade

networks s&eaks of Ithe distincti$e identity of the !ndo"#reeks.J15 3ut what does all of

this mean+ ;hat sort of dis&osition and distincti$e identity unites all that we ha$e now

labeled !ndo"#reek+

1C 4. *handra, Indo,Greek Je&ellry , =ew Delhi, -bhina$ ublications, 18A8, and

M.L. @arad&ande, Ancient Indian and Indo,Greek Theatre, =ew Delhi, -bhina$

ublications, 1861.

11 -.<. Sri$asta$a, Catalogue of Indo,Greek Coins in the #tate )useum,

Lucknow, Lucknow, State Museum, 1898, &. i.

10 -.<. Singh, 2(he !ndo"#reek Dis&osition’, in /.. -rora >ed.?, Graeco,Indica,

Delhi, 4amanand @idya 3hawan, 1881, &&. 1A8"181.

15 . =eelis, /arly Buddhist Transmission and Trade 3et&orks, Leiden, 3rill,

0C11, &. 1C9.

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ur use of the term reminds me of the warning sounded by 4omila (ha&ar in her

1889 Kakir Husain Memorial Lecture. She said

!n the writing of !ndian history, we ha$e become accustomed to &ackaging our

&ast and identifying it with labels. Such labels, e$en where they may include a $ariety of

acti$ity and e'&erience, tend to force inter&retations into a single category so that the

infinite shades of difference within them disa&&ear. ;hen this ha&&ens, the historical

&ers&ecti$e comes to be go$erned by the tyranny of labels. 1B

She is right, of course, and nothing catalogues the &ast into fi'ed categories

%uite like coins, which are still our main e$idence for the so"called !ndo"#reeks. *oins

are designed to condense com&le' histories into metallic lum&s that conceal our infinite

shades of difference. !n my country, millions of &eo&le e$ery day use a bilingual coinage

with Gnglish and Latin inscri&tions. (his means that about 57,CCC,CCC S&anish"

s&eakers in the /nited States routinely use a currency that gi$es no hint of their

e'istence. For s&eakers of *hinese, the number is 0.9 million, for Hindi o$er half a

million, and so on. Meanwhile, most -mericans ha$e no clue what the Latin says, for to

them it is a 2dead’ language. Furthermore, the historical &ersons &ortrayed on our

currency re&resent a fairly homogeneous grou& of wealthy white males who gi$e no hint

of our nation’s $ast ethnic and economic di$ersity. (he e$ocati$e word 2Liberty’

embla)oned ne't to these men does not re$eal which of them owned sla$es and which

one freed them. (hese coins e$en &roclaim a religious faith for a country that has no

official religion. !t is therefore worth remembering that the designs on money can be

$ery misleading about the world in which it circulates. *oins generally encourage the

1B 4. (ha&ar, 2(he (yranny of Labels’, #ocial #cientist , $ol. 0B, 1889, &. 5.

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kinds of sim&listic labels that 4omila (ha&ar warned us about. (hus, a catalogue of

-merican coins makes a &oor catalogue of -merican &eo&les. Similarly, we must be

cautious about imagining a world full of !ndo"#reeks based u&on a catalogue of !ndo"

#reek coins.

/nfortunately, the noun !ndo"#reek also carries within it a restless tension. nce

&ersonified, it creates a sense of heritage and filiation worth fighting for by those

identifying with one ancient grou& or the other. (hat little hy&hen stretches between !ndo

and #reek like the tightened ro&e in a tug"of"war between two great ci$ili)ations. !t

in$ites us to oin a team at either end, to strain against the o&&osing force, to &ull for a

winning side. (his tension has e$en found its way into modern #reek literature. !n uly

180C, the great &oet *onstantine *a$afy wrote these lines on 2NOPNQRQ N OTUOVW

XOYZQ[W’17

*oins with !ndian inscri&tions

(hey bear the names of the mightiest monarchs,

of G$ukratidasa, of Stratasa,

of Menandrasa, of Hermaiasa.

Such is how the wise book renders for us

the !ndian inscri&tions on one side of the coins.

3ut the same book also shows us the other side,

17 n the numismatic conte't of this &oem, see ;. Sei&el >ed.?, )4n5en und

!oesie0 Der griechische Dichter %onstantinos %a(afis, @ienna, <unsthistorisches

Museum, 0CC9, &&. 5B"57.

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which is, moreo$er, the good side

with the figure of the king. -nd here,

oh how a #reek sto&s at once,

how he is mo$ed to read the names now in #reek

Hermaios, Gukratides, Strato, and Menander.

(his emotional reaction by a #reek &oet to the #reek side of the coins, which he

considers 2the good side’ >\ VQ]\ NZOQ?, is %uite re$ealing.19 !f we add to *a$afy’s &oem

another #reek’s historical commentary on it, &ublished in 186B by -lcibiades

ikonomides, we find that

the sensiti$ity of *a$afy was somehow offended by the term Indo,Greeks, which

by the form of its construction gi$es a hea$y, but not ustifiable em&hasis to the !ndian

element. (he &oet then looks at the illustrations of the coins, which $erify that the real

em&hasis of the coin"makers leans to&ards the Greek element .1A

Here the tug"of"war fa$ors #reece.

19 ne is reminded of the later statement by the Hellenistic historian Sir ;illiam

(arn, who wrote 2it is time that somebody with some knowledge of the Hellenistic world

tried to get the more im"ortant Greek side into order’ >em&hasis added? (arn, The

Greeks in Bactria and India, &reface to the first edition.

1A -. ikonomides, 2- little known &oem of *.. *a$afy *oins with !ndian

!nscri&tions’, Ancient 6orld , $ol. 8, 186B, &. 5A >em&hasis added?.

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3ut others might see it differently. ;hereas *a$afy and ikonomides

em&hasi)ed the im&ortance of what is #reek on an !ndo"#reek coin, -.<. =arain did the

o&&osite. He famously wrote in 1897

=o Seleucid e$er &ut !ranian or 3abylonian legends on his coinage, no tolemy

e$er used Ggy&tian, but the !ndo"#reeks introduced !ndian legends in !ndian scri&ts on

their money. They came they sa& but India con7uered .16

Here the same tug"of"war fa$ors !ndia.

16-.<. =arain, 2-le'ander and !ndia’, Greece and 2ome, $ol. 10, 1897, &. 197,

lines re&eated almost $erbatim from the first edition of The Indo,Greeks, &. 11

>em&hasis added?. G'ce&t, of course, for the echo of *aesar, (arn made the same

obser$ation about the coins (arn, The Greeks in Bactria and India, &. 56A.

1C



*oins clearly remain the cru' of the &roblem behind the term !ndo"#reek.18 (he

tyranny of this label bede$ils us, but let me be clear none of this is the fault of -.<.

=arain or his book The Indo,Greeks. -s ! ha$e shown, he did not in$ent the term as an

adecti$e or a noun, he merely inherited it.0C -nd so ha$e !.01 !n -&ril 187B, ! arri$ed on

this earth at the time that candidate =arain was defending his hD thesis on the !ndo"

#reeks at the /ni$ersity of London. (hirty years later in 186B, ! defended my own hD

18 f course, some nati$e scri&ts do a&&ear on Seleucid coins, and the matter

goes much dee&er than coins alone. (he tolemies did, for instance, &ortray

themsel$es as Ggy&tian rulers in other media, and they did %uite &ublicly sanction the

use of nati$e scri&ts alongside #reek, and associated themsel$es with Ggy&tian deities

as on the famous 4osetta Stone. (he Seleucids acted likewise in 3abylonia, where for

e'am&le -ntiochus ! &artici&ated &ersonally in local cults, taking instruction from nati$e

&riests. He also commissioned a cuneiform -kkadian inscri&tion in which the king

a&&eals to the Meso&otamian god =ab^. See S. Sherwin";hite and -. <uhrt, 'rom

#amarkhand to #ardis, 3erkeley, /ni$ersity of *alifornia ress, 1885, &&. 59"5A, but

most recently 4. Strootman, 23abylonian, Macedonian, <ing of the ;orld (he -ntiochus

*ylinder from 3orsi&&a and Seleukid !m&erial !ntegration’, in G. Sta$riano&oulou >ed.?,

#hifting #ocial Imaginaries in the Hellenistic !eriod , Leiden, 3rill, 0C15, &&. 9A"8A.

0C - &oint already stressed in F. Holt, 8ost 6orld of the Golden %ing , 3erkeley,

/ni$ersity of *alifornia ress, 0C10, &. A7.

01 For that matter, so did ;.;. (arn, 2=otes on Hellenism in 3actria and !ndia’,

Journal of Hellenic #tudies, $ol. 00, 18C0, &. 081.

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dissertation, enamored by his work. (oday, another thirty years on, ! am still his

colleague in s&irit without regard for the tug"of"war that allegedly se&arates us.

Like -.<. =arain, ! ha$e often used the term !ndo"#reek by default, and like him !

ha$e been &ercei$ed as biased toward one side. ! ha$e been accused of tugging for the

#reeks, of standing alongside men such as Sir ;illiam (arn as &utati$e team"mates

trying to win one for the ;est.00 Here in =ew Delhi, it was a&&arently said of me at a

conference held in 0CC9 that 2n balance, des&ite recent efforts to bolster the $iews of

(arn >by Holt in 1868?, the weight of argument seems to fall more on the side of

=arain.’05 -nd so the tug"of"war goes on.

(he inherited term !ndo"#reek is $ague in terms of chronology and geogra&hy,

much less religion, culture, and ethnicity. !t can mean one thing to a numismatist and

another to an anthro&ologist or historian. (he ambiguity of the word, its $ersatility and its

$olatility, ha$e frustrated my efforts all these years to find one undis&uted !ndo"#reek.

-s mentioned earlier, e$en a 3uddhist Menander is not uni$ersally acclaimed as an

!ndo"#reek.0B !n fact, (homas McG$illey characteri)es the famous meeting of Menander

and the 3uddhist sage =agasena as 2a #reek teacher, con$erted by a #reek teacher,

00 =arain himself felt that ! was more sym&athetic to (arn than to him -.<.

=arain, 2-&&roaches and ers&ecti$es’, 9a(anika, $ol. 0, 1880, &&. 7"5B.

05 S. #arton, 2;ild Follies and stentatious Dis&lays’, in H.. 4ay and D.(. otts

>eds.?, )emory as History0 The 8egacy of Alexander in India, =ew Delhi, -ryan 3ooks

!nternational, 0CCA, &. A.

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con$erting a #reek king.’07 =arain himself labeled Menander as an !ndo"#reek, a

#raeco"!ndian, and often a #raeco"3actrian.09

Like the rest of us, =arain ne$er really defined any of these hy&henated terms

nor remained consistent in their usage. -t first he took !ndo"#reek to be a synonym for

the &rotean Sanskrit word a$ana, a correlation difficult to maintain since all !ndo"

#reeks might be a$anas but not all a$anas were !ndo"#reeks. 0A a$anas could be

&eo&les who were not #reek, such as 4omans, or &ersons who were #reek but ne$er

$entured anywhere near !ndia, such as -ntiochos !! of Syria. erha&s for that reason

some scholars ha$e added the term !ndo"a$ana to our growing le'icon.06 !f ! had to

define an !ndo"#reek_and here ! su&&ose ! must gi$e it a try_! would mean a &erson

whose day"to"day life entailed a conscious, demonstrable commitment to the cultures of

0B #.M. 3ongard"Le$in, 2-ncient !ndia and the #raeco"4oman ;orld’, Indologica

Taurinensia $ol. 15, 1867 &&. 198"167,es&. &&. 1AA and 16B.

07 McG$illey, The #ha"e of Ancient Thought , &. 5A6.

09 =arain, 2(he #reeks of 3actria and !ndia’, &assim.

0A -.<. =arain, The Indo,Greeks, &&. 1 and 9 2!n this work we use the terms

a$anas and !ndo"#reeks as synonyms.’ More recently, e.g., #. ;otilla, 2Did the !ndo"

#reeks ccu&y atali&utra+’ Acta Anti7ua Academiae #cientiarum Hungaricae, $ol. BC,

0CCC, &&. B87"7CB.

06 4. #rousset, Histoire de l:/xtr;me,Orient , aris, #euthner, 1808, &. 61.

15



both !ndia and #reece. Such a &erson would, in modern &arlance, inherit and act u&on

the so"called memes >the cultural e%ui$alent of genes? &assed down from #reece and

!ndia. (hat is the sort of man or woman ! am looking for in the historical record, deficient

as our sources may be, and it is a much harder standard to meet than might at first be

e'&ected. - few kings and raas, for e'am&le, may a&&ear e&igra&hically or

numismatically to be suitable candidates, but it is difficult to sort out their day"to"day

li$es from occasional official acts that may ha$e been of an entirely symbolic nature.

-lmost e$eryone else was sub"historic, li$ing in$isibly beneath the threshold of our

e'tant sources.

- solution may yet be found. !n my latest book 8ost 6orld of the Golden %ing , !

de$elo&ed a fresh a&&roach to coin analysis that borrows from recent trends in

archaeology: ! call this new system *ogniti$e =umismatics.08 ust as ! mentioned earlier

the misleading a&&earance of modern /.S. coinage, in this book ! e'amined &roblems

with how we use coins to reconstruct ancient *entral and South -sian history. For

instance, in my youth ! was taught that coins were all about kings, wars, and &olitics. !

was instructed to draw my facts from the faces on coins, trusting that these &ortraits

re$ealed the &ersonality and ethnicity of ancient rulers. Many numismatists and

historians still work that way, but ! would no longer care to deduce the character of any

historical &erson based solely on his or her image on a coin. ! reect efforts to deri$e

&ersonality &rofiles from nothing more than the smiles and scowls on ancient coins. !

disagree with those scholars who confidently assess ethnicity based on how a king

looks, as though we can differentiate who had #reek blood, or Sogdian blood, or !ndian

08 *ited abo$e, n. 0C.

1B



blood. Monarchs about whom we know absolutely nothing beyond their coins ha$e been

labeled brutal, o$ial, cynical, intelligent, s&oiled, crafty, and embittered. (hese

characteri)ations su&&ly our narrati$es with the &ersonalities we need to s&in a story,

but they are labels lacking any scientific merit.5C

-ll such determinations are built u&on the misguided notions of nineteenth

century eugenicists, led by Sir Francis #alton. #alton used com&osite &hotogra&hs to

codify the facial characteristics of &articular races and &ersonality ty&es, and he did the

same using ancient coin &ortraits of such leaders as =ero, -le'ander the #reat, and

*leo&atra.51 #alton furthermore su&&orted the e'ca$ations of Sir Flinders etrie, the

man called 2the father of scientific archaeology.’ etrie hel&ed #alton by collecting

artifacts in an effort to establish racial ty&es in a fi'ed hierarchy of intelligence and

ability. etrie &ublished a chart in the anthro&ological ournal )an, showing his

conclusion that skulls and faces distinguish Gnglishmen as the brightest of all &eo&les_

ust ahead of the French, 4omans, and ancient Ggy&tians, and far in front of Gskimos

and -ustralians.50 etrie considered his own head such a &erfect e'am&le of the

su&erior Gnglish ty&e that he willed it to science_and so it resides today in London

while the rest of him lies buried on the summit of Mt. Kion in erusalem. 55

5C G'&lained further in Holt, 8ost 6orld of the Golden %ing , &&. A6"66.

51 F. #alton, 2#eneric !mages’, !roceedings of the 2oyal Institution, $ol. 8, 16A8,

&&. 191"1AC.

50 F. etrie, 2(he /se of Diagrams’, )an, $ol. 0, 18C0, &. 65.

17



etrie called u&on numismatists to hel& bolster the work of #alton by amassing

coin &ortraits 2for the character study of celebrated kings.’5B (his &lea &romoted two

false assum&tions about numismatic &ortraiture that still ha$e adherents today. First,

there is the belief that coin &ortraits can faithfully ca&ture the otherwise unknowable

character and dis&osition of a king. Second, we find the enabling corollary that #reek

artists >and only #reek artists? were ca&able of &roducing such &ortraits. !n 185A

-merica’s foremost numismatist, Gdward (. =ewell, wrote &assionately about 2that

s&iritual %uality, that re$elation of the inner soul and character` such as only a #reek

artist could &roduce.’

57

-ccording to =ewell, we can allegedly trust a &ortrait to be an

accurate window into a ruler’s soul when it is the work of a #reek artist, and we know

that it is the work of a #reek artist when we think we see in it a reliable image of the

king’s soul. (he argument is entirely circular, and e%ually disturbing, it relies on the

notion that great art must be Greek art.59

;hen we go looking for an !ndo"#reek, we should not ha$e in mind someone too

talented to be an !ndian artist but not gifted enough to be a #reek artist. (hat kind of

55 M. Drower, 'linders !etrie0 A 8ife in Archaeology , 0nd edn., Madison,

/ni$ersity of ;isconsin ress, 1887.

5B F. etrie, The !alace of A"ries, London, 3ritish School of -rchaeology, 18C8,

&&. 19"1A.

57 G. =ewell, 2oyal Greek !ortrait Coins, =ew ork, ;ayte 4aymond, 185A, &.

A6, a &assage %uoted a&&ro$ingly by art historian #. 4ichter, The !ortraits of the

Greeks, London, haidon ress, 1897, @ol. !!!, &. 0A6.

19



&reudice has no &lace in scientific numismatics. For this reason the focus of *ogniti$e

=umismatics is not the art of coins, but the industry of coins. !t recogni)es that sur$i$ing

coinage is first and foremost e$idence of the mass &roduction of an ancient &roduct.

;e can estimate, for e'am&le, that Menander’s mints deli$ered about 0A,CCC,CCC sil$er

coins to the markets of South -sia. (his task re%uired about 767,7CC man"hours of

labor. =o other materials manufactured in anti%uity ha$e left us such a long and

unbroken record of how &eo&le labored day to day. ;hat &atterns of thought guided

their work+ ;hat challenges did they face+ How did their e'&eriences change o$er

time+

*ogniti$e =umismatics asks and answers these %uestions. !t shifts our focus

away from a handful of kings to the unknown hundreds who manufactured their money.

artisans of traditional numismatics ha$e argued, 2(he coins naturally &ut the focus on

the kings who issued them rather than on broader knowledge of these societies, but this

is a limitation we ha$e to acce&t.’5A ! argue instead that we can find e$idence of broader

societies, and that this e$idence is actually more reliable because it can be obser$ed

rather than inferred. (oday, instead of wondering about the few minutes a monarch such

as Menander might ha$e s&ent thinking about the designs on his money, we can shine

59 See also . aeggi, Die griechischen !ortr<ts, 3erlin, Dietrich 4eimer @erlag,

0CC6.

5A . akobsson, 2(he #reeks of -fghanistan 4e$isited’, 3omismatika %hronika,

$ol. 09, 0CCA, &. 71.

1A



our lanterns on more than a half"million man"hours of labor that brought that money into

e'istence.

*ogniti$e =umismatics takes a keen interest in the tiniest clues about how these

anonymous indi$iduals did their work.56 ;e can obser$e, for e'am&le, the im&ortant fact

that die engra$ers were not mere co&yists, but rather understood and thought about

what they were inscribing. G$en though these artisans had to engra$e e$erything

backwards, they did so by s&elling through each word in their heads as they went along.

(hey were thinking in one direction while engra$ing in the other. (his means that the

workmen who made !ndo"#reek coins were demonstrably literate in the languages

being used.58

(he way in which a &articular task like this is concei$ed and carried through is

called today a cultural 2meme’. -ccording to e$olutionary biologist 4ichard Dawkins,

in$entor of the term, these memes >like biological genes? &ass from &erson to &erson

and are subect to $ariation, mutation, com&etition, and inheritance. Sometimes we can

obser$e the &rocess by which one such habit of hand and mind re&laced another. For

e'am&le, on the coinage of Gucratides we can see the e'act moment when an

anonymous die"cutter changed his mind about how to align the te't on the die, for he

56 See, for e'am&le, . 3o&earachchi, 2uel%ues obser$ations sur la gra$ure

des coins indo"grecs’, Bulletin de la #oci=t= 'ran>aise de 3umismati7ue, $ol. 7A, 0CC0,

&&. A5"A7.

58 *ontrary to what is assumed for stone"cutters (. @erma, The !alaeogra"hy of

Brahmi #cri"t in 3orth India, @aranasi, Siddharth rakashan, 18A1, &. 1C.

16



actually erased the old form and introduced a new one. (ell"tale traces re$eal how the

meme of a straight"across inscri&tion mutated into a new, arched meme, which was

then &assed on to many other coin"ty&es. Gach meme for each as&ect of a coin reflects

in the worker’s mind a different cogniti$e roadma& for how to &roceed.

-s it ha&&ens, ancient !ndia was a hotbed of memetic e$olution. ;hen the #reek

memes for making round coins with #reek te'ts and images met the !ndian memes for

rectilinear coins with !ndian te'ts and images, a remarkable thing resulted_namely, the

hybrid !ndo"#reek coins at the heart of this discussion. Memetic e$olution brings within

the light of our lam&s a true !ndo"#reek at last. n one of the $ery first !ndo"#reek

coins, a sil$er s&ecimen minted for <ing -gathocles and featured &rominently on the

co$er of the latest edition of -.<. =arain’s book The Indo,Greeks, we can obser$e a tiny

tell"tale clue. n one side of the coin we read in #reek

ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΓΑΘΟΚΛΕΟΥΣ, and on the other side in 3rahmi scri&t, 4-!=G

-#-(H/<L-GS-.BC

!n both te'ts we find the same in$erted @ symbol >Λ? used to

write different sounds Lambda for #reek and #a for 3rahmi. et, this identical sha&e

has been engra$ed according to se&arate memes by the $ery same worker. !n #reek

coin inscri&tions, letters are formed by connecting a series of dots, a cultural meme

common for Hellenic coins across the ancient world. !n 3rahmi, e$en for the same

sha&e, these dots are not em&loyed on the -gathocles coin. (he man who made the

dies for this coin was therefore fluent in, and loyal to, both memes simultaneously.

BC 4. -udouin and . 3ernard, 2(rsor de monnaies indiennes et indo"grec%ues

d’-i <hanoum’, 2e(ue 3umismati7ue, 18AB, &&. A"B1.

18



Here he has hel&ed to create a new kind of coin while maintaining in his mind a

&ersistent memetic distinction between the ways in which to make identical letter forms

for #reek and 3rahmi. 4ecalling my definition of an !ndo"#reek, this engra$er is a

&erson whose day"to"day life entailed a conscious, demonstrable commitment to the

cultures of both !ndia and #reece. He has inherited and acted u&on the memes s&ecific

to each &arent ci$ili)ation. ;e cannot know whether his genes were #reek, !ndian, or

both: but his memes were unmistakably !ndo"#reek in a measurable way.

(he &ersistence of these two memes is %uite remarkable throughout much of the

history of ancient !ndia. For a $ery long &eriod, when we find both a #reek and a rakrit

control mark on the same face of a coin, the #reek will ha$e dots and the rakrit will

not. (his loyalty to dual cogniti$e ma&s seems cultural rather than &ractical. -fter all,

rakrit can be engra$ed with dots as readily as the #reek, and e$entually was_as on

the coins of -)es !!. 3ut this occurred $ery late, in the so"called !ndo"Scythian &eriod.

Let me suggest that in the new light of *ogniti$e =umismatics, we ha$e &erha&s had

our first glim&se of a man who was indis&utably an !ndo"#reek in the sense that he

consciously adhered to both #reek and !ndian traditions in his daily life. He finally

bridges that ga& between !ndo"#reek coins and !ndo"#reek &eo&le, a trium&h too long

delayed by our obsession with the looks of kings rather than the labors of commoners.

4GFG4G=*GS

Additions to the British )useum in )DCCC***+ , London, 3ritish Museum,

1658.

0C



-udouin, 4., and 3ernard, ., 2(rsor de monnaies indiennes et indo"grec%ues

d’-i <hanoum’, 2e(ue 3umismati7ue, 18AB, &&. A"B1.

3o&earachchi, ., 2uel%ues obser$ations sur la gra$ure des coins indo"grecs’,

Bulletin de la #oci=t= 'ran>aise de 3umismati7ue, $ol. 7A, 0CC0, &&. A5"A7.

*handra, 4., Indo,Greek Je&ellry , =ew Delhi, -bhina$ ublications, 18A8.

*ourt, -., 2*oins and 4elics of Manikyala’, Asiatic Journal , 1657, &&. 8"19.

Drower, M., 'linders !etrie0 A 8ife in Archaeology , 0nd edn., Madison, /ni$ersity

of ;isconsin ress, 1887.

#alton, F., 2#eneric !mages’, !roceedings of the 2oyal Institution, $ol. 8, 16A8,

&&. 191"1AC.

#rousset, 4., Histoire de l:/xtr;me,Orient , aris, #euthner, 1808.

Holt, F., 8ost 6orld of the Golden %ing , 3erkeley, /ni$ersity of *alifornia ress,

0C10.

aeggi, ., Die griechischen !ortr<ts, 3erlin, Dietrich 4eimer @erlag, 0CC6.

akobsson, ., 2(he #reeks of -fghanistan 4e$isited’, 3omismatika %hronika,

$ol. 09, 0CCA, &&. 71"66.

McG$illey, (., The #ha"e of Ancient Thought , =ew ork, -llworth ress, 0CC0.

=arain, -.<., The Indo,Greeks, 'ford, *larendon ress, 187A.

=arain, -.<., 2-le'ander and !ndia’, Greece and 2ome, $ol. 10, 1897, &&. 177"

197.

01



=arain, -. <., 2(he #reeks of 3actria and !ndia’, in -. -stin et al. >eds.?, The

Cambridge Ancient History @!!!, 0nd edn., *ambridge, *ambridge /ni$ersity ress,

1868, &&. 566"B01.

=arain, -.<., 2-&&roaches and ers&ecti$es’, 9a(anika, $ol. 0, 1880, &&. 7"5B.

=arain, -.<., The Indo,Greeks 2e(isited and #u""lemented , Delhi, 3.4.

ublishing, 0CC5.

=eelis, ., /arly Buddhist Transmission and Trade 3et&orks, Leiden, 3rill, 0C11.

=ewell, G., 2oyal Greek !ortrait Coins, =ew ork, ;ayte 4aymond, 185A.

ikonomides, -. 2- little known &oem of *.. *a$afy *oins with !ndian

!nscri&tions’, Ancient 6orld , $ol. 8, 186B, &&.

etrie, F., 2(he /se of Diagrams’, )an, $ol. 0, 18C0, &&. 61"67.

etrie, F., The !alace of A"ries, London, 3ritish School of -rchaeology, 18C8.

4awlinson, H.#., Bactria0 The History of a 'orgotten /m"ire, 1810, re&rint edn.

=ew ork, -MS, 1898.

4ichter, #., The !ortraits of the Greeks, London, haidon ress, 1897.

Sei&el, ;. >ed.?, )4n5en und !oesie0 Der griechische Dichter %onstantinos

%a(afis, @ienna, <unsthistorisches Museum, 0CC9.

Sherwin";hite, S. and -. <uhrt, -., 'rom #amarkhand to #ardis, 3erkeley,

/ni$ersity of *alifornia ress, 1885.

Singh, -.<., 2(he !ndo"#reek Dis&osition’, in /.. -rora >ed.?, Graeco,Indica,

Delhi, 4amanand @idya 3hawan, 1881, &&. 1A8"181.

00



Smith, @., The /arly History of India, 'ford, *larendon ress, 18CB.

Sri$asta$a, -.<., Catalogue of Indo,Greek Coins in the #tate )useum, Lucknow,

Lucknow, State Museum, 1898.

Strootman, 4., 23abylonian, Macedonian, <ing of the ;orld (he -ntiochus

*ylinder from 3orsi&&a and Seleukid !m&erial !ntegration’, in G. Sta$riano&oulou >ed.?,

#hifting #ocial Imaginaries in the Hellenistic !eriod , Leiden, 3rill, 0C15, &&. 9A"8A.

(arn, ;.;. 2=otes on Hellenism in 3actria and !ndia’, Journal of Hellenic #tudies,

$ol. 00, 18C0, &&. 096"085.

(arn, ;.;., The Greeks in Bactria and India, 0nd edn., *ambridge, *ambridge

/ni$ersity ress, 1871.

(ha&ar, 4., 2(he (yranny of Labels’, #ocial #cientist , $ol. 0B, 1889, &&. 5"05.

(ha&ar, 4. and -. <uhrt, 2!ndo"#reeks’, in S. Hornblower and -. S&awforth >eds.?,

The Oxford Classical Dictionary Bth edn., 'ford, 'ford /ni$ersity ress, 0C10, &. A5B.

(od, ., 2!ndo"#recian -nti%uities’, Asiatic Journal , $ol. 1A, 1657, &&. 8"01.

@arad&ande, M.L., Ancient Indian and Indo,Greek Theatre, =ew Delhi, -bhina$

ublications, 1861.

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Siddharth rakashan, 18A1.

;heeler, M., 'lames o(er !erse"olis, =ew ork, 4eynal *om&any, 1896.

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Indo,Greek Coins, 181B, re&rint edn. *hicago, -res, 1898.

05



;ilson, ., 23rief =otes on *ertain -ncient *oins’, Journal of the Asiatic #ociety

of Bombay , $ol- 5, 16B8, &. 108.

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0B

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