The splendid series of portrait coins of the Greek kings of Bactria
does not come within the scope of this work: their gold and silver
pieces, struck on the Attic standard,[13] were never current in
India proper, where they are rarely found, and they really belong to
the history of Greek coinage. Nevertheless they are of the utmost
importance for our subject, for in following these models the
Indo-Greek kings introduced Greek types, and among them the portrait
head, into the Indian coinage, and their example was followed for
eight centuries. This word “type” needs some definition. Originally
it meant the particular mark of authority on a coin as distinct from
other marks, but it has come to imply a distinguishing device more or
less artistic in character. Such devices appear on all Greek and Roman
coins. In this sense the coins of the Muhammadans cannot properly be
said to display “types,” for both obverse and reverse are usually
occupied entirely by the inscription.
[13] On the Attic standard, adopted by Alexander, the Seleucid and
Bactrian kings, the drachm weighed 67·5 grains; on the Persian
standard, adopted by the Indo-Greeks (and hence in some works called
the Indian standard), it weighed 88 grains, but their coins rarely
reach the full weight. Mr. Whitehead, in a recent monograph, “The
Pre-Muhammadan Coinage of North-Western India” (_Numismatic Notes
and Monographs_, No. 13, The American Numismatic Society, New York,
1922), calls the two silver denominations of the Indo-Greeks drachms
and tetradrachms, thus supposing a separate Indian standard. I have
retained the hitherto accepted nomenclature, hemidrachms and didrachms
for convenience of reference to standard works.
Demetrios was the first Bactrian king to strike square copper coins
of the Indian type, with a legend in Greek on the obverse, and in
Kharoshṭhī on the reverse. His rival, Eukratides, struck these
bilingual square copper pieces in greater abundance, as well as a
very rare silver coin with inscriptions in both languages. The
Gandhāra copper coinage of Agathokles and Pantaleon (Pl. II, 2) has
already been alluded to. After the removal of the seat of government
to territory south of the Hindu Kush, we find the coinage undergoing a
radical change. The rare gold staters and the splendid tetradrachms of
Bactria disappear. The silver coins of the Indo-Greeks, as these later
princes may conveniently be called, are the didrachm (Pl. II, 5) and
the hemidrachm. With the exception of certain square hemidrachms of
Apollodotos and Philoxenos (Pl. II, 7), they are all round, are struck
to the Persian (or Indian) standard, and all have inscriptions in both
Greek and Kharoshṭhī characters. Copper coins, square for the most
part, are very numerous (Pl. II, 6). The devices are almost entirely
Greek, and must have been engraved by Greeks, or Indians trained in
the Greek traditions, yet “the engravers ... were no slavish copyists
of Western models, but were giving free and spontaneous expression to
their own ideas.”[14] On the reverse is ordinarily to be found some god
or goddess—Herakles, Zeus, Pallas, or some symbol of their worship;
the “two piloi” (caps) of the Dioskouroi are of frequent occurrence.
A notable square copper coin of Eukratides has the figure of a seated
Zeus, accompanied by the legend in Kharoshṭhī, “_The city deity of
Kāpiśī_,” suggesting that others of these deities may stand as the
patrons of cities.[15] Other reverse devices are the tripod, a king on
horseback, and various animals, including the specially Indian elephant
and humped bull. The portraits on the obverse, especially on the fine
didrachms, are realistic and boldly drawn, and show us clearly what
manner of men these early European rulers in India were. On most of
these coins and those of the Śaka rulers are found a great variety
of monograms (Fig. 3) formed of Greek letters, but the significance
of these has never been satisfactorily explained. From a study of
monograms and types, and particularly from observing the gradual
debasement in style which takes place, experts have been able to
arrange these kings in chronological order. Such tests are sometimes,
however, delusive; the king, Zoilos, for example, minted two types of
hemidrachm, one in comparatively fine style, the other very debased.
[14] Marshall, _Guide to Taxila_, p. 27.
[15] For other city types see _Camb. History of India_, Vol. I, p. 557
_sq._
The extreme rarity of the money of a few kings, like Apollophanes,
Polyxenos and Theophilos, leads us to suppose that they were
pretenders. The most important kings, judging from the large number of
their coin types, were Antialkidas, king of Taxila, circ. 155-130 B.C.,
Apollodotos, Menander and Strato I. Antialkidas appears on one of his
numerous silver types wearing the striking flat cap, called “kausia”
(Pl. II, 8). Apollodotos’ coinage is remarkable for the large variety
of its copper types. Particularly noticeable are the large round pieces
which he introduced (Pl. II, 3). Menander’s coins (Pl. II, 4) are found
all over Northern India in great quantities, and his didrachms, with
three distinct styles of portrait, are the finest of the series. The
heads of two queens, Agathokleia and Kalliope, are found conjoined,
the former with that of her son, Strato I, the latter with that of her
husband, Hermaios (Pl. II, 9), on a few rare coins. The debasement
which set in in Strato’s reign (Pl. II, 10) in the Eastern Kingdom,
and is evidenced not only in the poorness of design but even in the
striking of coins in lead, reached even a lower point in the coinage
of Hermaios. On one type of copper, with the head of Hermaios on the
obverse, the name of Kujūla Kadphises, the Kushāṇa, appears on the
reverse (Pl. IV, 1).[16]
[16] It is suggested (_Camb. History of India_, p. 561) that the
coins of Hermaios extended over a long period, and that it was these
degenerate posthumous coins which Kujūla Kadphises copied.