Editing Demetrius I of Bactria (section)

==Invasion of India==
[[File:Demetrios I Baktria Tetradrachm 200-185 BC.jpg|thumb|310x310px|Silver tetradrachm of Demetrius I. Obverse with the diademed and draped bust of king, wearing [[Indian elephant|elephant]]-skin headdress (evoking Alexander the Great and his conquests in India). Reverse shows [[Heracles]] standing, crowning himself, holding club and lion skin. [[Ancient Greek|Greek]] legend reads: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΙΟΥ, ''Basileōs Dēmētriou'', "of King Demetrius".]]
Demetrius started the invasion of northwestern India between 190 and 180 BC, following the destruction of the [[Maurya Empire|Mauryan]] dynasty by the general [[Pushyamitra Shunga]], who then founded the new Indian [[Shunga dynasty]] (180–78 BC). In the ''Paramparapustaka'' chronicle, Sri Lankan monks state that [[Brihadratha_Maurya|Brihadratha]], the last Mauryan Emperor, married a daughter of Demetrius, Berenice.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Paranavithana |first=Senarath |title=The Greeks and the Mauryas |publisher=Lake House Investments |year=1971 |location=Colombo, Sri Lanka |pages=84}}</ref> The Greco-Bactrians might have invaded the Indus Valley to protect Greek expatriates in the Indian Subcontinent. Also, the Mauryans had had diplomatic alliances with the Greeks, and they may have been considered as allies by the Greco-Bactrians.<ref>

* Description of the 302 BCE marital alliance in [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239 Strabo 15.2.1(9)]:  "The Indians occupy [in part] some of the countries situated along the Indus, which formerly belonged to the Persians: Alexander deprived the Ariani of them, and established there settlements of his own. But [[Seleucus I Nicator]] gave them to [[Sandrocottus]] in consequence of a marriage contract, and received in return five hundred elephants." The ambassador [[Megasthenes]] was also sent to the Mauryan court on this occasion.
* In the [[Edicts of Ashoka]], king [[Ashoka]] claims to have sent Buddhist emissaries to the Hellenistic west around 250 BCE.
* When Antiochus III the Great, after having made peace with Euthydemus, went to India in 209 BCE, he is said to have renewed his friendship with the Indian king there and received presents from him: "He crossed the Caucasus ([[Hindu Kush]]) and descended into India; renewed his friendship with [[Sophagasenus]] the king of the Indians; received more elephants, until he had a hundred and fifty altogether; and having once more provisioned his troops, set out again personally with his army: leaving Androsthenes of Cyzicus the duty of taking home the treasure which this king had agreed to hand over to him."[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plb.+11.39 Polybius 11.39] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151008023525/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0239 |date=October 8, 2015 }}</ref><ref>"Obviously, for the Greeks who survived in India and suffered from the oppression of the Shunga (for whom they were aliens and heretics), Demetrios must have appeared as a saviour" Mario Bussagli, p. 101</ref>

Demetrius may have first started to recover the province of [[Arachosia]], an area south of the Hindu Kush already inhabited by many Greeks but ruled by the Mauryas since the annexation of the territory by [[Chandragupta Maurya|Chandragupta]] from [[Seleucus I Nicator|Seleucus]]. In his ''Parthian stations'', [[Isidorus of Charax]] mentions a city named [[Demetriapolis|Demetrias]], supposedly founded by Demetrius himself:

{{quote|"Beyond is Arachosia. And the Parthians call this White India; there are the city of Biyt and the city of Pharsana and the city of Chorochoad and the city of Demetrias; then Alexandropolis, the metropolis of Arachosia; it is Greek, and by it flows the river Arachotus. As far as this place the land is under the rule of the Parthians."<ref>Mentioned in Bopearachchi, "Monnaies Greco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques", p52. Original text in paragraph 19 of [http://www.parthia.com/parthian_stations.htm#PARTHIAN_STATIONS Parthian stations]</ref>}}

The Greek geographer [[Strabo]] described the conquests of Demetrius in his ''[[Geographica]]'':

{{quote|"The Greeks who caused Bactria to revolt grew so powerful on account of the fertility of the country that they became masters, not only of Ariana, but also of India, as [[Apollodorus of Artemita]] says: and more tribes were subdued by them than by Alexander — by [[Menander I|Menander]] in particular (at least if he actually crossed the [[Beas River|Hypanis]] towards the east and advanced as far as the [[Imaus|Imaüs]]), for some were subdued by him personally and others by Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus the king of the Bactrians."<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Strab.+11.11.1 Strabo 11.11.1 full text]</ref>}}

The Greek campaigns may have gone as far as the capital [[Pataliputra]] in eastern India (today [[Patna, India|Patna]]):

{{quote|"Those who came after [[Alexander the Great|Alexander]] went to the [[Ganges]] and Pataliputra" ([[Strabo]], XV.698)}}

It is generally considered that Demetrius ruled in [[Taxila]] (where many of his coins were found in the archaeological site of [[Sirkap]]). The Indian records also describes Greek attacks on [[Saketa]], [[Panchala]], [[Mathura, Uttar Pradesh|Mathura]] and [[Pataliputra]] (Gargi-Samhita, [[Yuga Purana]] chapter). However, the campaigns to Pataliputra are generally attested to the later king [[Menander I]] and Demetrius I probably only invaded areas in [[Pakistan]]. Other kings may have expanded the territory as well. By c. 175 BC, the Indo-Greeks ruled parts of northwestern India, while the Shungas remained in the Gangetic, Central, and Eastern India.

The [[Hathigumpha inscription]] of the [[Kalinga (historical region)|Kalinga]] king [[Kharavela]] mentions that fearing him, a Yavana (Greek) king or general retreated to [[Mathura]] with his demoralized army. The name of the Yavana king is not clear, but it contains three letters, and the middle letter can be read as ''ma'' or ''mi''.<ref name="PLGupta_1994">Kusâna Coins and History, D.K. Printworld, 1994, p.184, note 5; reprint of a 1985 article</ref> Some historians, such as [[R. D. Banerji]] and [[K.P. Jayaswal]] reconstructed the name of the Yavana king as "Dimita", and identified him with Demetrius. However, several other historians, such as [[Ramaprasad Chanda]], Sailendra Nath Sen and P.L. Gupta disagree with this interpretation.<ref name="PLGupta_1994"/><ref name="Sudhakar_1974">{{cite book |author=Sudhakar Chattopadhyaya |title=Some Early Dynasties of South India |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=78I5lDHU2jQC&pg=PA20 |year=1974 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |isbn=978-81-208-2941-1 |pages=44–50 }}</ref><ref name="Sailendra_1999">{{cite book |author=Sailendra Nath Sen |title=Ancient Indian History and Civilization |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wk4_ICH_g1EC&pg=PA176 |year=1999 |publisher=New Age International |isbn=978-81-224-1198-0 |pages=176–177 }}</ref>