A History of India, Third Edition

THE GREAT ANCIENT EMPIRES

Another Indo-Greek contribution, of great importance for historians,
is their highly developed coinage. Whereas the Maurya emperors had
only produced simple punch-marked coins, even petty Indo-Greek kings
issued splendid coins with their image. No period of Indian history is
richer in impressive coins than this fairly short period of the Indo-Greeks.
This style of coinage was followed by later dynasties and set the pattern
for all coins of ancient India. Only some slight changes were made when
the Kushanas adopted Roman standards for the weight of their coins and
the Guptas then introduced an Indian standard. For the historians this
new source proves to be often more reliable, at least for the identification
and dating of rulers, than inscriptions and literary texts. For the Indo-
Greek kings this coinage was not just an instrument of propagating their
own importance, but a practical means of fostering regional and
interregional trade which was so important for the maintenance of their
rule. This combination of domination and commerce was copied from
the Indo-Greek precedent by the Shakas and Kushanas who became their
heirs in Northern India.

The Shakas: new invaders from Central Asia

In the last centuries of the first millennium BC northwestern India was
once more subjected to a new wave of immigration from Central Asia. In
Bactria several tribes clashed in the second century BC and pushed each
other towards the fertile lowlands in the south. This migration began
around 170 BC in the eastern region of Central Asia when the nomadic
Xiongnu (Hiung-nu) (probably the ancestors of the latter-day Huns)
defeated the Yuezhi (Yue-chi) who then moved west where they hit upon a
third nomadic tribe, the Sai Wang or Shakas, who in turn moved to the
west. According to Chinese reports some of these Shakas directly crossed
the mountains and entered the Indus plains whereas others invaded Bactria
and eastern Iran. Together with their kinsmen, the Scythians, they became
a major threat to the Parthian empire and two Parthian rulers lost their
lives in fighting against them. But in the reign of Mithridates II (123 to 88
BC), the Shakas seem to have recognised Parthian suzerainty and some of
them settled down in Sakastan (Sistan) in what is now southern
Afghanistan. There they intermarried with Scythians and with the local
Parthian nobility. Other clans of the Shakas appeared as conquerors in
India where they dominated the political scene of the northwest for nearly
a century.
The first Shaka king in India was Maues. There are various estimates
of the dates of his reign, ranging from 94 BC to AD 22. Under him and
his successor, Azes I, the Shakas established a large Indian empire
including the northwest and parts of central India from Gandhara down
to Mathura and Ujjain and all the way to the coast of Saurashtra. The