Back ميناندر الأول Arabic ميناندر الاول ARZ Менандр Сатэр Byelorussian Менандър I Bulgarian প্রথম মেনান্দ্রোস সোতের Bengali/Bangla Menandre I Catalan Menandros I. Sótér Czech Menandros (König) German Μένανδρος ο Σωτήρ Greek Menandro la 1-a Esperanto

Menander I

Menander I
Maharaja
Basileus
Portrait of Menander I Soter, from his coinage
Indo-Greek King
Reign165/155–130 BC
PredecessorAntimachus II
SuccessorStrato I (Agathoclea as regent)
Bornc. 180 BC
Kalisi (in present-day Bagram, Afghanistan)[1][2] or Sagala (present-day Sialkot, Pakistan)[3]
Died130 BC (aged 50)
Burial
Stupas across the Indo-Greek Kingdom
ConsortAgathoclea
IssueStrato I

Menander I Soter (Ancient Greek: Μένανδρος Σωτήρ, romanized: Ménandros Sōtḗr, lit. 'Menander the Saviour'; Pali: Milinda), sometimes called Menander the Great,[4][5] was an Indo-Greek king (reigned c. 165/155[6] –130 BC) who administered a large territory in the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia. Menander is noted for having become a patron of Greco-Buddhism and is regarded as the greatest and most well-known of the Indo-Greek kings.[7][8]

Menander might have initially been a prince or king of Bactria.[9][10][7] After conquering the Punjab,[2] as far as Taxila and Sagala, he established an empire which stretched from the Kabul River in the west to the Ravi River in the east, and from the Swat River valley in the north to Arachosia (the Helmand Province). The Greek geographer Strabo wrote that he "conquered more tribes than Alexander the Great." Ancient Indian writers indicate that he possibly launched unsuccessful expeditions southward into Rajputana (Rajasthan, Gujarat and Sindh) and central India (Gujarat and Malwa) and as far east down the Ganges River Valley as Pataliputra (Patna).[11][7][10]

Large numbers of Menander’s coins have been unearthed, attesting to both the flourishing commerce and longevity of his realm. Menander was also a patron of Buddhism, and his conversations with the Buddhist sage Nagasena are recorded in the important Buddhist work, the Milinda Panha ("The Questions of King Milinda"; panha meaning "question" in Pali). After his death in 130 BC, he was succeeded by his wife Agathocleia, perhaps the daughter of Agathocles, who ruled as regent for his son Strato I.[12] Buddhist tradition relates that he handed over his kingdom to his son and retired from the world, but Plutarch says that he died in camp while on a military campaign, and that his remains were divided equally between the cities to be enshrined in monuments, probably stupas, across his realm.

  1. ^ "Menander". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 8 September 2012.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Hazel 2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Magill 2003 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Ḍār, Saifurraḥmān (2006). Historical Routes Through Gandhara (Pakistan): 200 B.C-200 A.D. National College of Arts. p. 88. ISBN 9789690020352.
  5. ^ Dar, Saifur Rahman; Jan, Zakirullah (2015). "Three Seasons of Excavations at Pir Manakrai, Haripur: Preliminary Report". Ancient Pakistan. 26: 1–44. ISSN 2708-4590.
  6. ^ Bopearachchi (1998) and (1991), respectively. The first date is estimated by Osmund Bopearachchi and R. C. Senior, the other Boperachchi
  7. ^ a b c "Menander | Indo-Greek king". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  8. ^ "Biographie de MÉNANDRE, roi de Bactriane (env. 160-env. 140 av. J.-C.)". Encyclopædia Universalis (in French). 29 January 2025. Retrieved 20 April 2025.
  9. ^ "Menandros", Store norske leksikon (in Norwegian), 22 February 2025, retrieved 20 April 2025.
  10. ^ a b "Milinda". Treccani (in Italian). Retrieved 20 April 2025.
  11. ^ Thapar, Romila (2003). Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. University of California Press. p. 215. ISBN 978-0-520-24225-8.
  12. ^ The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge University Press. 1970. p. 406. ISBN 978-0-521-23448-1.

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