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[German version] One of Alexander [4] the Great's settlements (Plin. HN 6,26,96; perhaps following Onesicritus), where his fleet set off under Nearchus [2] on its coastal voyage westwards; according to [2] identical with Ἀλεξάνδρου λιμήν/ Alexándrou limḗn ('Alexander's port') in Arr. Ind. 21,10 where the western branch of the Indus flows into the Arabian Sea [1. 127]. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki)…

[German version] (Ναμάδης; Namád ēs). River in Gujarāt, rising in the Vindhya mountains (Οὐίνδιον; …

[German version] (Ξανδράμης/ Xandrámēs). Indian king (in Diod. Sic. 17,93,2; Latin Agrammes in Curt. 9,2,3; Sacram(es) in the Epitome Mettensis 68), second half of the 4th cent. BC. He was described to Alexander [4] as the most powerful king in the Ganges valley. It is therefore probably Nandrus, the last king of the Nanda dynasty in Indian sources, that is meant (N…

[German version] Probably an Indo-Greek king or prince, recorded only in one Kharoṣṭī inscription (known as the Bajaur Seal) as Middle Indian Theudama. It is by no means certain that the reading of the short inscription as "of the king Theodamas" is correct, but the name is certain. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum 2.1, Nr. 3

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: India, trade with (Ἀλε…

[German version] (in Chinese sources Yuèzhī) originally a Central Asian people, which migrated west in the 2nd cent. BC. The I. conquered  Graeco-Bactria and later moved to India, where they founded the powerful  Kushan dynasty ( Kanishka). Their Indian kingdom is called Indo-Scythia by Ptolemy and others.  Scythians Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw, The Scythian Period, 1949.

[German version] (Χρυσῆ χερρόνησος; Chrysê cherrónēsos). South-west Asian Peninsula (Peripl. m. r. 63; Ptol. 7,2,5, etc.), Lat. Promunturium Chryse (Plin. HN 6,20,55), probably on the modern Malacca Peninsula; cf. Sanskrit Suvarṇabhūmi ‘Land of Gold’ and Suvarṇadvı̄pa ‘Island of Gold’ in south-west Asia. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography P. Wheatley, The Golden Khersonese. Studies in the historical geography of the Malay Peninsula before A.D. 1500, 1961.

[German version] (Ταπροβάνη/ Taprobánē). The most common name for the island of Ceylon from the time of Onesicritus (in Str. 15,1,17 and Plin. HN 6,81) and Megasthenes (Plin. HN 6, 81) onwards, Ancient Indian Tāmraparṇi, Middle Indian Tambapaṇṇi. The unrealistic geographical ideas of Antiquity, which are probably based on Eratosthenes [2], are noteworthy: in all Greek and Latin sources T. is much larger than in reality and extends far to the west. Nevertheless, in Ptolemaeus [65] for instance, who devotes a whole c…

[German version] (Peripl. m. r. 58f.; Komaria, Ptol. 7,1,9). Southern Indian harbour town with a cape of the same name. Cf. modern Kanya Kumari on the southern tip of the Indian peninsula. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki)

[German version] Eastern Iranian dynasty (1st-4th cent. AD) whose territory stretched from the Ganges to Lake Aral. The dynasty evolved from nomadic tribes (part of the Yuezhi; Indo-Scythians) who took Bactria ( Bactria) from the Greeks. Heraios is attested as their first ancestor, Kujula Kadphises as founder of the empire. His successors are Vima Kadphises, Kanishka, Vasishka, Huvishka and Vāsudeva (there may be several bearers of these names.). The dating is contentious. The dominant religion was a syncretistic Mahāyāna-Buddhism. The arts were greatly shaped by the Graeco-Bactrian inheritance (northern Bactrian style of Gandhāra art; Gandaritis). The Buddha for instance adopted traits from Greek deities. Iranian Hellenistic art was also widespread in eastern Turkestan and northern China in the wake of Buddhism. Its tradition, in modified forms, was spread as far as Japan. Official inscriptions were written in an expanded Greek alphabet. Control of the Silk Roa…

[German version] (Ashoka). Maurya emperor of India (269/268-233/232 BC), also called Piyadassi/Priyadarōsi (Greek Πιοδάσσης; …

[German version] (Neo-Persian panǧāb). The land of the five rivers Indus [1], Jhelum (Hydaspes), Chenāb (Acesines [2]), Rāvī (Hydraotes) and Sūtlaj-Beas (Zadadrus, Ptol. 7,1,27, Sydrus, Plin. HN 6,21,63 and Hyphasis). Although it was already known to the Achaemenids, P. entered the Greek geographical consciousness only through the campaigns of Alexander. In 326 BC Alexander [4] conquered P. as far as the Hyphasi…

[German version] (H. in Arr.,  Hypanis in Str., Diod. Sic. and Dionys. Per., Hypasis in Curt. and Plin. HN, Bipasis in Ptol.; all of them possibly passed down from Old Indian Vipāśā- through Iranian); one of the five main rivers of the Punjab, modern Satlaǧ/Beas. At the upper reaches (modern Beas) was the point from which Alexander returned to the  Hydaspes. Thus the Satlaǧ ( Zaradrus of Ptol.), which lies further to the east, remained unknown for the most part to the Alexander historians, and also the lower course, which both have in common, as far as the  Acesines [2] was considered to be the H. In the 2nd cent. AD Ptolemy, with somewhat further-reaching geographical knowledge, correctly recognized the Bipasis to b…

[German version] (Ζάραδρος/ Záradros, in manuscripts also Ζάδαδρος/ Zádadros). Indian river in Ptol. 7,1,27 and 42; Sydrus in Plin. HN 6,21,63; Old Indo-Iranian Śutudrī (in the Veda), Śatadru (in Epic), modern Sutlej, an eastern tributary of the Indus [1] in the Punjab. The river rises in the western Himalayas, flows through the Kulindrene region and then into the Indus. As the easternmost of its tributaries it was not noticed by Alexander [4] the Great and therefore not mentioned in Alexander literature. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography H. Treidler, s. v. Z., RE 9 A, 23…

[German version] (Town in India, Hecat. in Steph. Byz.; Caspatyrus of Hdt. 4,44). Here Scylax had begun his journey with the fleet of Darius I down the Indus and through the sea to Egypt. An identification with Multan (as Kāśyapapura) in the Punjab hardly is possible; C. should rather be looked for west of the Indus, perhaps on the Kabul River, as the journey first took an easterly direction. Karttunen, Klaus (Helsinki) Bibliography K. Karttunen, India in Early Greek Literature, 1989, 41-46.

[German version] (Θράσων; Thrásōn). Indo-Greek king in the Punjab at about the beginning of the 1st cent. BC, recorded only on a number of coins, Middle Indic Thrasa. …

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[German version] A. History The area of  Bactria in north-east Iran is a country with an old culture with an early developed city culture and an Iranian population. Greeks settled there sporadically as early as under the  Achaemenids [2]; however, one cannot as yet speak of a Greek population, with [1]. Not until under Alexander [4] the Great, who conquered the country in a gruelling two-year war, were several settlements started for the veterans of his army. Bactria became a Hellenistic satrapy und…