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MENANDER (MILINDA)

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Originally appearing in Volume V18, Page 111 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MENANDER (MILINDA) , a Graeco-See also:Indian dynast. When the Graeco-Indian See also:king See also:Demetrius had been beaten by See also:Eucratides of See also:Bactria, about 16o B.C., and the See also:kingdom of Eucratides (q.v.) dissolved after his assassination (c. 150 B.C.), a See also:Greek See also:dynasty maintained itself in the See also:Kabul Valley and the See also:Punjab. The only two See also:kings of this dynasty mentioned by classical authors are Apollodotus and Menander, who conquered a See also:great See also:part of See also:India. See also:Trogus Pompeius described in his See also:forty-first See also:book (see the See also:prologue) " the Indian See also:history of these kings, Apollodotus and Menander," and See also:Strabo, xi. 516, mentions from Apollodotus of Artemita, the historian of the Parthians, that Menander " conquered more tribes than See also:Alexander, as he crossed the Hypanis to the See also:east and advanced to the Isamus; he and other kings (especially Demetrius) occupied also Patalene (the See also:district of Patala near See also:Hyderabad on the See also:head of the See also:delta of the See also:Indus) and the See also:coast which is called the district of Saraostes (i.e. Syrastene, in mod. See also:Gujarat, See also:Brahman Saurashtra) and the kingdom of Sigerdis (not otherwise known); and they extended their dominion to the Seres (i.e. the See also:Chinese) and Phryni (?)." The last statement is an exaggeration, probably based upon the fact that from the mouth of the Indus See also:trade went as far as See also:China. That the old coins of Apollodotus and Menander, with Greek legends, were still in currency in Barygaza (mod. See also:Broach), the great See also:port of Gujarat, about A.D. 70 we are told by the Periplus marls Erythraei, 48. We possess many of these coins, which follow the Indian See also:standard and are artistically degenerate as compared with the earlier Graeco-Bactrian and Graeco-Indian coins, with bilingual legends (Greek and Kharoshti, see BACTRIA).

Apollodotus, who must have been the earlier of the two kings, bears the titles Soler, Philopator, and " Great King "; Menander, who must have reigned a See also:

long See also:time, as his portrait is See also:young on some coins and old on others, calls himself See also:Soter and " Just " (SiKauor). Their reigns may be placed about 14o-8o B.C. Menander appears in Indian traditions as Milinda; he is praised by the Buddhists, whose See also:religion he is said to have adopted, and who in the Milindapanha or Milinda Panho (see below), " the questions of Milinda " (Rhys Davids, Sacred Books of the East, See also:xxxv., See also:xxxvi.) relate his discourses with the See also:wise Nagasena. According to the See also:Indians, the Greeks conquered Ayodhya and Pataliputra (Palimbothra, mod. See also:Patna); so the conjecture of See also:Cunningham that the See also:river Isamus of Strabo is the Son, the great See also:southern tributary of the See also:Ganges (near Patna), may be true. The Buddhists praise the See also:power and military, force, the See also:energy and See also:wisdom of "Milinda "; and a Greek tradition preserved by See also:Plutarch (Praec. reip. ger. 28, 6) relates that " when Menander, one of the Bactrian kings, died on a See also:campaign after a mild See also:rule, all the subject towns disputed about the See also:honour of his See also:burial, till at last his ashes were divided between them in equal parts." (The Buddhist tradition relates a similar See also:story of the See also:relics of See also:Buddha.) Besides Apollodotus and Menander, we know from the coins a great many other Greek kings of western India, among whom two with the name of Straton are most conspicuous. The last of them, with degenerate coins, seems to have been Hermaeus Soter. These Greek dynasts may have maintained themselves. in some part of India till about 40 B.C. But at this time the See also:west, Kabul and the Punjab were already in the hands of a barbarous dynasty,, most of whom have Iranian (See also:Parthian) names, and who seem therefore to have been of Arsacid origin (cf. See also:Vincent A. See also:Smith, " The Indo-Parthian Dynasties from about 12o B.C. to A.D.

100," in Zeitschrift der deutschen morgenldndischen Gesellschaft, 1906, lx. 69 sqq.). Among them See also:

Manes, two kings named Azes, See also:Vonones and especially See also:Gondophares or Hyndophares are the most conspicuous. The latter, whose date is fixed by an inscription from the Kabul Valley dated from the See also:year 103 of the Samvat era ( = A.D. 46), is famous by the See also:legend of St See also:Thomas, where he occurs as king of India under the name of Gundaphar. Soon afterwards the Mongolian Scyths (called See also:Saka by the Indians), who had conquered Bactria in 139 B.C., invaded India and founded the great Indo-Scythian kingdom of the Kushan dynasty. (See BACTRIA; and See also:PERSIA: See also:Ancient History.) (ED. M.) The Milinda Panho is preserved in See also:Pali, in See also:Ceylon, See also:Burma and See also:Siam, but was probably composed originally in the extreme See also:north-west of India, and in a See also:dialect spoken in that region. Neither date nor author is known; but the approximate date must have been about the 2nd See also:century of our era. The See also:work is entitled Milinda Panho—that is, The Questions of King Milinda. In it the king is represented as propounding to a Buddhist Bhikshu named Nagasena a number of problems, puzzles or questions in religion and See also:philosophy; and as receiving, in 'ach See also:case, a convincing reply. It is a See also:matter of very little importance whether a tradition of some such conversations having really taken See also:place had survived to the time when the author wrote his book.

In any case he composed both problems and answers; and his work is an See also:

historical See also:romance, written to discuss certain points in the faith, and to invest t$%e discussion with the See also:interest arising from the story in which it is set. This See also:plan is carried out with great skill. " An introduction, giving the past and See also:present lives of Milinda and Nagasena, is admirably adapted to fill the reader with the See also:idea of the great ability and distinction of the two disputants. The questions chosen are just those which would See also:appeal most strongly to the intellectual See also:taste of the India of that See also:age. And the See also:style of the book is very attractive. Each particular point ie kept within easy limits of space, and is treated in a popular way. But the earnestness of the author is not concealed ; and he occasionally rises into a very real eloquence. The work is several times quoted as authority by See also:Buddhaghosa, who wrote about A.D. 450, and it is the only work, not in the See also:canon, which receives this honour. The Milinda has been edited in Pali by V. Trenckner, and translated into See also:English by the present writer, with introductions in which the historical and See also:critical points made in this See also:article are discussed in detail. There is space here to mention only one further fact.

M. Sylvain See also:

Levy, working in collaboration with M. Specht, has shown that there are two, if not three, Chinese See also:works, written between the 5th and 7th centuries, on the Questions of Milinda. They purport to be See also:translations of Indian works. They are not, however, translations of the Pali See also:text. They give, with alterations and additions, the substance of the earlier part of the Pali work; and are probably derived from a recension that may be older than the Pali.

End of Article: MENANDER (MILINDA)

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