Chapter I: Coins of the Indo-Greeks

The splendid series of portrait coins of the Greek kings of Bactria does not come within the scope of this work: their gold and silver pieces, struck on the Attic standard,[13] were never current in India proper, where they are rarely found, and they really belong to the history of Greek coinage. Nevertheless they are of the utmost importance for our subject, for in following these models the Indo-Greek kings introduced Greek types, and among them the portrait head, into the Indian coinage, and their example was followed for eight centuries. This word “type” needs some definition. Originally it meant the particular mark of authority on a coin as distinct from other marks, but it has come to imply a distinguishing device more or less artistic in character. Such devices appear on all Greek and Roman coins. In this sense the coins of the Muhammadans cannot properly be said to display “types,” for both obverse and reverse are usually occupied entirely by the inscription.

[13] On the Attic standard, adopted by Alexander, the Seleucid and Bactrian kings, the drachm weighed 67·5 grains; on the Persian standard, adopted by the Indo-Greeks (and hence in some works called the Indian standard), it weighed 88 grains, but their coins rarely reach the full weight. Mr. Whitehead, in a recent monograph, “The Pre-Muhammadan Coinage of North-Western India” (_Numismatic Notes and Monographs_, No. 13, The American Numismatic Society, New York, 1922), calls the two silver denominations of the Indo-Greeks drachms and tetradrachms, thus supposing a separate Indian standard. I have retained the hitherto accepted nomenclature, hemidrachms and didrachms for convenience of reference to standard works.

Demetrios was the first Bactrian king to strike square copper coins of the Indian type, with a legend in Greek on the obverse, and in Kharoshṭhī on the reverse. His rival, Eukratides, struck these bilingual square copper pieces in greater abundance, as well as a very rare silver coin with inscriptions in both languages. The Gandhāra copper coinage of Agathokles and Pantaleon (Pl. II, 2) has already been alluded to. After the removal of the seat of government to territory south of the Hindu Kush, we find the coinage undergoing a radical change. The rare gold staters and the splendid tetradrachms of Bactria disappear. The silver coins of the Indo-Greeks, as these later princes may conveniently be called, are the didrachm (Pl. II, 5) and the hemidrachm. With the exception of certain square hemidrachms of Apollodotos and Philoxenos (Pl. II, 7), they are all round, are struck to the Persian (or Indian) standard, and all have inscriptions in both Greek and Kharoshṭhī characters. Copper coins, square for the most part, are very numerous (Pl. II, 6). The devices are almost entirely Greek, and must have been engraved by Greeks, or Indians trained in the Greek traditions, yet “the engravers ... were no slavish copyists of Western models, but were giving free and spontaneous expression to their own ideas.”[14] On the reverse is ordinarily to be found some god or goddess—Herakles, Zeus, Pallas, or some symbol of their worship; the “two piloi” (caps) of the Dioskouroi are of frequent occurrence. A notable square copper coin of Eukratides has the figure of a seated Zeus, accompanied by the legend in Kharoshṭhī, “_The city deity of Kāpiśī_,” suggesting that others of these deities may stand as the patrons of cities.[15] Other reverse devices are the tripod, a king on horseback, and various animals, including the specially Indian elephant and humped bull. The portraits on the obverse, especially on the fine didrachms, are realistic and boldly drawn, and show us clearly what manner of men these early European rulers in India were. On most of these coins and those of the Śaka rulers are found a great variety of monograms (Fig. 3) formed of Greek letters, but the significance of these has never been satisfactorily explained. From a study of monograms and types, and particularly from observing the gradual debasement in style which takes place, experts have been able to arrange these kings in chronological order. Such tests are sometimes, however, delusive; the king, Zoilos, for example, minted two types of hemidrachm, one in comparatively fine style, the other very debased.

[14] Marshall, _Guide to Taxila_, p. 27.

[15] For other city types see _Camb. History of India_, Vol. I, p. 557 _sq._

The extreme rarity of the money of a few kings, like Apollophanes, Polyxenos and Theophilos, leads us to suppose that they were pretenders. The most important kings, judging from the large number of their coin types, were Antialkidas, king of Taxila, circ. 155-130 B.C., Apollodotos, Menander and Strato I. Antialkidas appears on one of his numerous silver types wearing the striking flat cap, called “kausia” (Pl. II, 8). Apollodotos’ coinage is remarkable for the large variety of its copper types. Particularly noticeable are the large round pieces which he introduced (Pl. II, 3). Menander’s coins (Pl. II, 4) are found all over Northern India in great quantities, and his didrachms, with three distinct styles of portrait, are the finest of the series. The heads of two queens, Agathokleia and Kalliope, are found conjoined, the former with that of her son, Strato I, the latter with that of her husband, Hermaios (Pl. II, 9), on a few rare coins. The debasement which set in in Strato’s reign (Pl. II, 10) in the Eastern Kingdom, and is evidenced not only in the poorness of design but even in the striking of coins in lead, reached even a lower point in the coinage of Hermaios. On one type of copper, with the head of Hermaios on the obverse, the name of Kujūla Kadphises, the Kushāṇa, appears on the reverse (Pl. IV, 1).[16]

[16] It is suggested (_Camb. History of India_, p. 561) that the coins of Hermaios extended over a long period, and that it was these degenerate posthumous coins which Kujūla Kadphises copied.