Bactria, Seleucid, Seleucos I Silver tetradrachm

Bactria, Seleucid, Seleucos I Silver tetradrachm, c. 290 BCE

Bactria, Seleucid, Seleucos I Silver tetradrachm, c. 290 BCE.

Weight: 16.87 gm., Diam: 26 mm.

Laureate, bearded bust of Zeus right  Athena driving elephant quadriga

Greek legend: BAΣIΛEΩΣ aΣEΛEYKOY (of King Seleucos)

This coin is represents one of the first clearly "foreign" coins to be minted in India. Although the Achaemenids had ruled northwestern India for a while, they did not leave any numismatic legacy. However, after Alexander the Great's brief appearance on the Indian horizon, the Seleucid empire established a presence in the northwestern part of the country. Although a few Greek style coins were minted in Bactria prior to the Seleucid issues, this coin, of Seleucos I (312-280 BCE) is nevertheless one of the first Greco-Bactrian coins. With a laureate head of Zeus right on the obverse and Athena in an elephant quadriga on the reverse, the coin is representative of the highest quality classic Greek coins of the period. It introduces to Indian numismatics not only an entirely new design type, but also the use of legends to identify the issuer. Here we see on the reverse the Greek inscription: BAΣIΛEΩΣ ΣEΛEYKOY (of King Seleucos).

To Seleucos, the Indian provinces were a distant holding far from the center of his empire in Syria. These distant provinces faced a threat from a rising super-power in India: the Maurya dynasty. The dynasty was founded in 322 BCE by Chandragupta Maurya, who overthrew the Nanda rulers of the Magadha kingdom and then began a process of expansion that extended the empire all the way to what is now Pakistan. Facing conflict with this powerful rival, Seleucos chose to forge a peace. He conceded all the Seleucid lands south of the Hindu Kush mountains (in modern Afghanistan) to Chandragupta (known as Sandracottas in the Greek literature of the time) in exchange for 500 elephants. So the Mauryan empire now extended from Bengal in the east all the way to Afghanistan in the west.

The Mauryan empire reached the peak of its extent probably under the rule of Chandragupta's grandson Ashoka (273-232 BCE), who has been called the greatest king the world has ever known. Ashoka's claim to this distinction comes from an unlikely source: It stems not from the extent to which he expanded his empire through conquest, but rather on his renunciation of violence and war, his adoption of Buddhism, and his mission to spread the non-violent teachings of the Buddha throughout his empire. Ashoka carved the Buddha's teachings on rocks throughout India, or on iron pillars he erected for the purpose. He also sent Buddhist missions to other countries, notably to Lanka, China and Southeast Asia. There is little doubt that he was the person who did more than anyone else to spread Buddhism throughout Asia.