page_title: Indo-Greek Kingdom
section_title: Rule in Mathura
hierarchical_section_title: Indo-Greek Kingdom / History of the Indo-Greek kingdom / Rule of Menander I / Rule in Mathura
caption_attribution_description: English: Mathura Herakles. Hercules strangling the Nemaean lion. "As this group could not have been made for the use of the Hindus, whether Brahmans or Buddhists, I conclude with very great probability that it must have been sculptured by some foreign artist for the use of the Greeks resident of Mathura." 'Report of a tour in the Central Provinces and Lower Gangetic Doab in 1881-82' (A.S.I. vol. XVII, Calcutta, 1884), p. 109. Mathura statue of Herakles strangling the Nemaean lion.
context_page_description: The Indo-Greek Kingdom or Graeco-Indian Kingdom, and historically known as Yavanarajya, was a Hellenistic kingdom spanning modern-day Afghanistan, into the classical circumscriptions of the Punjab of the Indian subcontinent, during the last two centuries BC and was ruled by more than thirty kings, often conflicting with one another.
  The kingdom was founded when the Graeco-Bactrian king Demetrius invaded the subcontinent early in the 2nd century BC. The Greeks in the Indian Subcontinent were eventually divided from the Graeco-Bactrians centered on Bactria, and the Indo-Greeks in the present-day north-western Indian Subcontinent. The most famous Indo-Greek ruler was Menander. He had his capital at Sakala in the Punjab.
  The expression "Indo-Greek Kingdom" loosely describes a number of various dynastic polities, traditionally associated with a number of regional capitals like Taxila, Pushkalavati and Sagala. Other potential centers are only hinted at; for instance, Ptolemy's Geographia and the nomenclature of later kings suggest that a certain Theophila in the south of the Indo-Greek sphere of influence may also have been a satrapal or royal seat at one time.
context_section_description: From numismatic, literary and epigraphic evidence, it seems that the Indo-Greeks also had control over Mathura during the period between 185 BCE and 85 BCE, and especially during the rule of Menander I (165–135 BC). Ptolemy mentioned that Menander's ruler extended to Mathura (Μόδυρα).
  Slightly northwest of Mathura, numerous Indo-Greek coins were found in the city of Khokrakot (modern Rohtak), belonging to as many as 14 different Indo-Greek kings, as well as coin molds in Naurangabad, suggesting Indo-Greek occupation of Haryana in the 2nd-1st centuries BC.
  An inscription in Mathura discovered in 1988, the Yavanarajya inscription, mentions "The last day of year 116 of Yavana hegemony (Yavanarajya)". The "Yavanarajya" probably refers to the rule of the Indo-Greeks in Mathura as late as around 70–60 BC (year 116 of the Yavana era). The extent of Indo-Greek rule in Mathura has been disputed, but it is also known that no remains of Sunga rule have been found in Mathura, and their territorial control is only proved as far as the central city of Ayodhya in northern central India, through the Dhanadeva-Ayodhya inscription. Archeological excavations of cast die-struck coins have also revealed the presence of a Mitra dynasty (coin issuers who did not name themselves "kings" on their coins) in Mathura sometime between 150 BC to 20 BC. Additionally, coins belonging to a Datta dynasty have also been excavated in Mathura. Whether these dynasties ruled independently or as satraps to larger kingdoms is unknown.
caption: The Mathura Herakles. A statue of Herakles strangling the Nemean lion from Mathura.[141] Today in the Kolkota Indian Museum.
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