IndoGreek

Indo-Greek, or Indo-Greek, is the term used by historians for the Hellenistic polities and rulers that occupied parts of the northwestern Indian subcontinent after the decline of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom, beginning around 180 BCE. These domains extended across Gandhara (roughly today’s northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan) and into the Punjab, with no single fixed capital and with borders that shifted over time.

The Indo-Greek period began with Greek incursions into the Indian subcontinent, led by rulers such as Demetrius I of Bactria around 180 BCE. A succession of Greek rulers issued coinage and controlled different frontier regions, producing a complex, overlapping set of dynasties and polities. Notable rulers include Menander I (Milinda) and Apollodotus I, among others. The political landscape was marked by fragmented authority rather than a centralized state, as Greek rulers established footholds across cities rather than a unified empire.

Cultural exchange was a defining feature. Indo-Greek coinage often combined Greek portraiture and script with Indian symbols and local scripts such as Brahmi and Kharosthi. This period contributed to the emergence of Greco-Buddhist art in Gandhara, reflecting profound cross-cultural influences. The Heliodorus pillar at Vidisha, erected by a Greek ambassador in the 2nd century BCE, stands as a testimony to religious and cultural syncretism between Greek rulers and Indian religious traditions.

Decline and legacy: by the early centuries CE, Indo-Greek kingdoms had weakened and disappeared from the political map as Kushan and other powers expanded into the region. The term Indo-Greek is a modern historiographic designation, based largely on numismatic and limited textual evidence, used to describe a set of Greek-influenced polities rather than a single unified state.