Silver coin of King Azes II (r.c. 35-12 BCE). Obv: King with coat of mail, on horse, holding a sceptre, with Greek royal headband. Greek legend BASILEWS BASILEWN MEGALOU AZOU "The Great King of Kings Azes". Rev: Athena with shield and lance. Kharoshti legend MAHARAJASA RAJADIRAJASA MAHATASA AYASA "The Great King of Kings Azes". Azes II (reigned circa 35-12 BCE), was an Indo-Scythian king who completed the rule of the Scythians in northern India.
Decline of the Scythians
After the death of Aze II, the rule of the Indo-Scythians in northwestern India finally crumbled with the conquest of the Kushans, one of the five tribes of the Yuezhi who had lived in Bactria for more than a century, and were now expanding into India to create a Kushan Empire.
Soon after, the Parthians invaded from the west. Their leader Gondophares temporarily displaced the Kushans and founded the Indo-Parthian Kingdom that was to last towards the middle of the 1st century AD.
The Kushans ultimately regained northwestern India from around 75 AD, where they were to prosper for several centuries.
Some Indo-Scythian kingdom persisted in northern India until the 5th century CE.
Coinage
Azes II's coins use Greek and Kharoshti, depict a Greek goddess as his protector, and thereby essential follow the numimastic model of the Greek kings if the Indo-Greek kingdom, suggesting a high willingly to accomodate Greek culture. An originality of the Indo-Scythians is to show the king on a horse, rather than his bust in profile as would do the Greeks.
Other coins of Azes depict the Buddhist lion and the Brahmanic cow of Shiva, suggesting religious tolerance towards his subjects.
See also
External links
- Coins of Azes II (http://www.coinarchives.com/a/results.php?results=100&search=Azes+II&Thumb=1)
References
- "The Shape of Ancient Thought. Comparative studies in Greek and Indian Philosophies" by Thomas McEvilley (Allworth Press and the School of Visual Arts, 2002) ISBN 1581152035
- "The Greeks in Bactria and India", W.W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press.
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