Legacy of the Indo-Greeks

Dr. Lewis's theory, based on the mere similarity of names, has not found acceptance at all because the Pallavas were in constant conflict with the Kadambas, prior to the rise of Chalukyas.

"Also, the city of Alexandria Bucephalus on the Jhelum River is still mentioned in the 1st century Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, as well as in the Roman Peutinger Table.

Greek mercenary soldiers from northwestern India are mentioned in the accounts of the Pandyan Kingdom in Madurai, and described in admiring terms: "The valiant-eyed Yavanas, whose bodies were strong and of terrible aspect".

This statement, couched in the form of prophecy in true puranic style, alludes to a historical situation (2nd and 1st century BC downwards) which followed the collapse of Maurya and Shunga dynasties in North India.

[15] ' This chaotic situation of Aryan India is said to have ended with the destruction of these Mlechcha Saka, Kamboja, Yavana and Parsika hordes by king Vikramaditya of Ujjaini (c. 60 BC) as is related by Brihat-Katha-Manjari of the Kashmiri Pandit Kshemendra and Kathasaritsagara of Somadeva, and the establishment of the Vikrama era.

[16][17][18] Although the political power of the Greeks had waned in the north, mainly due to nomadic invasions, trade relations between the Mediterranean and India continued for several centuries.

The trade started by Eudoxus of Cyzicus in 130 BCE kept on increasing, and according to Strabo (II.5.12), by the time of Augustus, up to 120 ships were setting sail every year from Myos Hormos to India.

"The political influence of Seleucid and Bactrian dynastic Greeks over northwest India, for example, persisted for several centuries after the invasion of the army of Alexander the Great (Tarn 1951).

Given the sample size of 325 Indian Y chromosomes examined, however, it can be said that the Greek homeland (or European, more generally, where these markers are spread) contribution has been 0%–3% for the total population or 0%–15% for Punjab in particular.

[24][25][26][27][28] Greek representations and artistic styles, with some possible admixtures from the Roman world, continued to maintain a strong identity down to the 3rd–4th century, as indicated by the archaeological remains of such sites as Hadda in eastern Afghanistan.

[30] Numerous elements of Greek mythology and iconography, introduced in northwestern India by the Indo-Greeks through their coinage at the very least, were then adopted throughout Asia within a Buddhist context, especially along the Silk Road.

Scholars believe that Mahayana Buddhism began around the 1st century BCE in the North-western Indian subcontinent, corresponding to the time and place of Indo-Greek florescence.

According to Richard Foltz, "Key formative influences on the early development of the Mahayana and Pure Land movements, which became so much part of East Asian civilization, are to be sought in Buddhism's earlier encounters along the Silk Road".

[32] As Mahayana Buddhism emerged, it received "influences from popular Hindu devotional cults (bhakti), Persian and Greco-Roman theologies which filtered into India from the northwest".

[33] The Romano-Greek language is a very Hellenized Indo-Aryan language[34] A few Greek words were adopted in Sanskrit, such as words chiefly related to warfare and numeration:[35] The "Avaca" Kharosthi inscription, found on a Buddhist relic casket, indicates that the old Greek military title of strategos ("commander") had apparently endured the Indo-Scythian invasion and was being used by the Apracarajas of Bajaur during the 1st century CE (the inscription mentions the dedication date of the casket as "the year 63 of the late Maharaja Aya", Aya being the Indo-Scythian ruler Azes I, who started the Vikrama era in 58 BCE, therefore suggesting a date around 5 CE).

Overall, the coinage of the Indo-Greeks remained extremely influential for several centuries throughout the Indian subcontinent: The latest use of the Greek script on coins corresponds to the rule of the Turkish Shahi of Kabul, around 850.