 | Indo-Scythians: Encyclopedia II - Indo-Scythians - Indo-Scythian kingdoms
Indo-Scythians - Indo-Scythian kingdoms
Indo-Scythians - Abiria to Surastrene
The first Indo-Scythian kingdom in the Indian subcontinent occupied the southern part of Pakistan (which they accesses from southern Afghanistan), in the areas from Abiria (Sindh) to Surastrene (Gujarat), from around 110 to 80 BCE. They progressively further moved north into Indo-Greek territory until the conquests of Maues, circa 80 BCE.
The Indo-Scythians ultimately established a kingdom in the northwest, based in Taxila, with two Great Satraps, one in Mathura in the east, and one in Surastrene (Gujarat) in the southwest.
Indo-Scythians - Gandhara and Punjab
The presence of the Scythians in north-western India during the 1st century BCE was contemporary with that of the Indo-Greek Kingdoms there, and it seems they initially recognized the power of the local Greek rulers.
Maues first conquered Gandhara and Taxila around 80 BCE, but his kingdom disintegrated after his death. In the east, the Indian king Vikrama retook Ujjain from the Indo-Scythians, celabrating his victory by the creation of the Vikrama Era (starting 58 BCE). Indo-Greek kings again ruled after Maues, and prospered, as indicated by the profusion of coins from kings Apollodotus II and Hippostratos. Not until Azes I, in 55 BCE, did the Indo-Scythians take final control of northwestern India, with his victory over Hippostratos.
The coins of the Indo-Scythians in northwestern India, probably designed by Indo-Greek celators (their coins bear Greek monograms, and still kept their Greek names and denomations), displayed Greek legends and Greek divinities such as Zeus or Nike in a fine style.
Azes II is connected to the Bimaran casket, one of the earliest representations of the Buddha. The casket, probably Greek work, was used for the dedication of a stupa in Bamiran, near Jalalabad in Afghanistan, and placed inside the stupa with several coins of Azes II. This event may have happened during the reign of Azes II (30-10 BCE), or slightly later. The Indo-Scythians are otherwise connected with Buddhism (see Mathura lion capital), and it is indeed possible they would have commendited the work.
Indo-Scythians - Mathura
In central India, the Indo-Scythians conquered the area of Mathura over Indian kings around 60 BCE. Some of their satraps were Hagamasha and Hagana, who were in turn followed by the Saca Great Satrap Rajuvula.
The Mathura lion capital, an Indo-Scythian sandstone capital in crude style, from Mathura in Central India, and dated to the 1st century CE, describes in kharoshthi the gift of a stupa with a relic of the Buddha, by Queen Nadasi Kasa, the wife of the Indo-Scythian ruler of Mathura, Rajuvula. The capital also mentions the genealogy of several Indo-Scythian satraps of Mathura.
Rajuvula apparently eliminated the last of the Indo-Greek kings Strato II around 10 CE, and took his capital city, Sagala.
The coinage of the period, such as that of Rajuvula, tends to become very crude and barbarized in style. It is also very much debased, the silver content becoming lower and lower, in exchange for a higher proportion of bronze, an alloying technique (billon) suggesting less than wealthy finances.
Indo-Scythians - Kushan and Indo-Parthian conquests
After the death of Azes II, the rule of the Indo-Scythians in northwestern India finally crumbled with the conquest of the Kushans, one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi who had lived in Bactria for more than a century, and were now expanding into India to create a Kushan Empire. Soon after, the Parthians invaded from the west. Their leader Gondophares temporarily displaced the Kushans and founded the Indo-Parthian Kingdom that was to last towards the middle of the 1st century CE.
The Kushans ultimately regained northwestern India from around 75 CE, and the area of Mathura from around 100 CE, where they were to prosper for several centuries.
Indo-Scythians - Western Kshatrapas legacy
The Indo-Scythians continued to hold the area of Seistan until the reign of Bahram II (276-293 CE), and held several areas of India well into the 1st millenium: Kathiawar and Gujarat were under their rule until the 5th century under the designation of Western Kshatrapas, until they were eventually conquered by the Gupta emperor Chandragupta II (also called Vikramaditya).
Other related archives110, 115 BCE, 124 BCE, 126 BCE, 138, 145 BCE, 155 BCE, 175 BCE, 1st century CE, 200 CE, 400 CE, 58 BCE, 5th century, 80 BCE, Afghanistan, Alexandria on the Oxus, Apollodotus II, Arachosia, Artabanus I, Azes I, Azes II, Azilises, Bactria, Bahram II, Barbarians, Barbaric, Bimaran casket, Buddha, Chalukya, Chandragupta II, Chera, Chola, Ferghana, First Islamic conquests, Gandhara, Gandharas, Gondophares, Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, Greek conquests, Gujarat, Gupta, Gupta empire, Han Shu, Himavat, Hindukush, Hippostratos, Hunas, Huns, Ili river, India, Indo-Greek Kingdom, Indo-Greek Kingdoms, Indo-Greek kingdom, Indo-Hephthalites, Indo-Parthian Kingdom, Indo-Sassanians, Indo-Scythian, Islamic invasion of India, Jalalabad, Kalinga, Kamboja, Kambojas, Kansu, Kashmir, Kathiawar, Katyayana, Kharahostes, Kidarite Kingdom, Kshatriyas, Kuninda kingdom, Kushan Empire, Kushans, Kusulaka Patika, Magadha empire, Mahabharata, Manusmriti, Massagetae, Mathura, Mathura lion capital, Maues, Mauryan, Mauryan empire, Menander I, Mithridates II, Nadasi Kasa, Nanda empire, Nike, Oxus, Pahlavas, Pakistan, Pala Empire, Pallava, Pandya, Parthia, Parthian Empire, Parthians, Patanjali, Persian rule, Phraates II, Pratihara, Rajuvula, Ramayana, Rashtrakuta, Sagala, Saka, Sakas, Sakyamuni, Satavahana empire, Satraps, Scythian, Scythians, Seistan, Shahi, Shakas, Shudras, Siberia, Sindh, Sodasa, Sogdiana, Solanki, Spalahores, Strato II, Sudakshina, Sunga, Sunga empire, Tarim Basin, Taxila, Tocharians, Tokharistan, Ujjain, Uttarapatha, Vikrama, Vonones, Western Kshatrapas, Wusun, Xinjiang, Xiongnu, Yavanas, Yuezhi, Zeionises, Zeus, Zhang Qian, bhagavat, billon, dharma, dynasties, epic, kharoshthi, sangha, satraps, stupa, suzerains, tribal, tribes, triratana, vitarka mudra
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Indo-Scythian kingdoms", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
