Menander

Menander (flourished 160 bce?–135 bce?) was the greatest of the Indo-Greek kings and the one best known to Western and Indian classical authors. He is believed to have been a patron of the Buddhist religion and the subject of an important Buddhist work, the Milinda-panha (“The Questions of Milinda”).

Menander was born in the Caucasus, but the Greek biographer Plutarch calls him a king of Bactria, and the Greek geographer and historian Strabo includes him among the Bactrian Greeks “who conquered more tribes than Alexander [the Great].” It is possible that he ruled over Bactria, and it has been suggested that he aided the Seleucid ruler Demetrius II Nicator against the Parthians. His kingdom in the Indian subcontinent consisted of an area extending from the Kabul River valley in the west to the Ravi River in the east and from the Swat River valley (in modern Pakistan) in the north to Arachosia (the Kandahār region) in Afghanistan in the south. Ancient Indian writers indicate that he probably led expeditions into Rajputana and as far east along the Ganges (Ganga) River valley as Pataliputra (now Patna), in the present-day Indian state of Bihar.

Menander was probably the Indo-Greek king who was converted to Buddhism by the holy man Nagasena after a prolonged and intelligent discussion, which has been recorded in the Milinda-panha. The style may have been influenced by Plato’s dialogues. The wheel engraved on some of Menander’s coins is probably connected with Buddhism, and Plutarch’s statement that when Menander died his earthly remains were divided equally among the cities of his kingdom and that monuments, possibly stupas (Buddhist commemorative monuments), were to be erected to enshrine them has been interpeted to indicate that he had probably become a Buddhist. Modern scholarship, however, has cast doubt on Plutarch’s account, speculating that he may have confused Menander’s death with the almost identical story of the death of the Buddha.

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The only inscription referring to Menander has been found in Bajaur, the tribal territory between the Swat and Kunar rivers, but large numbers of Menander’s coins have been unearthed, mostly of silver and copper, attesting to both the duration of his reign and the flourishing commerce of his realm. According to Buddhist tradition he handed over his kingdom to his son and retired from the world, but Plutarch relates that he died in camp while on a military campaign.