page_title: Indo-Greek Kingdom
section_title: Yavana era for Buddha sculptures
hierarchical_section_title: Indo-Greek Kingdom / History of the Indo-Greek kingdom / Later contributions / Yavana era for Buddha sculptures
caption_attribution_description: English: Hashtnagar Buddha piedestal with Year 384 inscription; The inscription in Kharoshthi reads: "sam 1 1 1 100 20 20 20 20 4 Prothavadasa masasa divasammi pamcami 4 1" ("In the year 384, on the fofth, 5, day of the month Prausthapada").p.37
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: Several Gandhara Buddha statues with dated inscriptions, are now thought to have been dated in the Yavana era (originating c. 186 BC). One of the statues of the Buddha from Loriyan Tangai has an inscription mentioning "the year 318". The era in question is not specified, but it is now thought, following the discovery of the Bajaur reliquary inscription and a suggestion by Richard Salomon which has gained wide acceptance, that it is dated in the Yavana era beginning in 186 BC, and gives a date for the Buddha statue of c. AD 143.
  The inscription at the base of the statue is:
  sa 1 1 1 100 10 4 4 Prothavadasa di 20 4 1 1 1 Budhagosa danamu(khe) Saghorumasa sadaviyasa
  
  "In year 318, the day 27 of Prausthapada, gift of Buddhaghosa, the companion of Samghavarma" 
  — Inscription of the Buddha of Loriyan Tangai.
  This would make it one of the earliest known representations of the Buddha, after the Bimaran casket (1st century AD), and at about the same time as the Buddhist coins of Kanishka.
  Another statue of Buddha, the Buddha of Hashtnagar, is inscribed from the year 384, also probably in the Yavana era, which is thought to be AD 209. Only the pedestal is preserved in the British Museum, the statue itself, with folds of clothing having more relief than those of the Loriyan Tangai Buddha, having disappeared.
caption: Piedestal of the Hashtnagar Buddha statue, with Year 384 inscription, probably of the Yavana era, i.e. AD 209.[249]
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