مناندر الأول

Menander I
Portrait of Menander I
Indo-Greek king
العهد	165/155–130 BC
سبقه	Antimachus II
تبعه	Strato I
وُلِد	Kalasi, Alexandria of the Caucasus (present day Bagram, Afghanistan)
توفي	130 BC
المدفن	Stupas across the Indo-Greek Kingdom
العقيلة	Agathokleia
الأنجال	Strato I
البيت	House of Euthydemus
الديانة	Buddhism

Menander I Soter (باليونانية قديمة: Μένανδρος Α΄ ὁ Σωτήρ, Ménandros A' ho Sōtḗr, "Menander I the Saviour"; known in Indian Pali sources as Milinda) was an Indo-Greek King of the Indo-Greek Kingdom (165//155 –130 BC) who administered a large empire in the Northwestern regions of South Asia from his capital at Sagala. Menander is noted for having become a patron of Buddhism.

Menander was initially a king of Bactria. After conquering the Punjab he established an empire in South Asia stretching from the Kabul River valley in the west to the Ravi River in the east, and from the Swat River valley in the north to Arachosia (the Helmand Province). Ancient Indian writers indicate that he launched expeditions southward into Rajasthan and as far east down the Ganges River Valley as Pataliputra (Patna), and the Greek geographer Strabo wrote that he "conquered more tribes than Alexander the Great."

Large numbers of Menander’s coins have been unearthed, attesting to both the flourishing commerce and duration of his realm. Menander was also a patron of Buddhism, and his conversations with the Buddhist sage Nagasena are recorded in the important Buddhist work, the Milinda Panha ("The Questions of King Milinda"; panha meaning "question" in Pali). After his death in 130 BC, he was succeeded by his wife Agathokleia who ruled as regent for his son Strato I. Buddhist tradition relates that he handed over his kingdom to his son and retired from the world, but Plutarch relates that he died in camp while on a military campaign, and that his remains were divided equally between the cities to be enshrined in monuments, probably stupas, across his realm.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 Indo-Greek ruler

Sagala

class=notpageimage|

Location of Sagala/ Sialkot, capital city of Menander I.

Attic Tetradrachm of Menander I in Greco-Bactrian style (Alexandria-Kapisa mint).
Obv: Menander throwing a spear.
Rev: Athena with thunderbolt. Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ (BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU), "Of King Menander, the Saviour".

2. Silver drachm of Menander I (155-130 BC).
Obv: Greek legend, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ (BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU) lit. "Of Saviour King Menander".
Rev: Kharosthi legend: MAHARAJASA TRATARASA MENAMDRASA "Saviour King Menander". Athena advancing right, with thunderbolt and shield. Taxila mint mark.

Another silver drachm of Menander I, dated circa 160-145 BC. Obverse: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ ('of King Menander the Saviour'), heroic bust of Menander, viewed from behind, head turned to left; Reverse: Athena standing right, brandishing thunderbolt and holding aegis, Karosthi legend around, monogram in field to left. Reference: Sear 7604.

Silver coin of Menander
Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ
(BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU)
lit. "Of Saviour King Menander". British Museum.

Strabo also suggests that these Greek conquests went as far as the capital Pataliputra in northeastern India (today Patna):

Those who came after Alexander went to the Ganges and Pataliputra

— Strabo, 15.698

 مناندر والبوذية

 ملندا پانها

King Milinda asks questions.

Indian-standard coinage of Menander I. Obv ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ "Of Saviour King Menander". Rev Palm of victory, Kharoshthi legend Māhārajasa trātadasa Menandrāsa, British Museum.

According to tradition, Menander embraced the Buddhist faith, as described in the Milinda Panha, a classical Pali Buddhist text on the discussions between Milinda and the Buddhist sage Nāgasena. He is described as constantly accompanied by a guard of 500 Greek ("Yonaka") soldiers, and two of his counsellors are named Demetrius and Antiochus.

وهناك قانون بوذي مكتوب باللغة الباليّة، تراه يضم المتناقضات، شأنه في ذلك شأن أي كتاب مقدس يحمي مصالح الكهنوت، وفي هذا القانون رسالة تستوقف النظر لعلها قديمة قدم المسيحية، وتسمى "أسئلة الملك مِلِنْدا" وفيها المعلم البوذي "نجاسينا" يجيب إجابات جد مثيرة للأسئلة الدينية التي يوجهها إليه "الملك مناندر" الإغريقي الباكتريّ الذي حكم شمالي الهند في مستهل القرن الأول قبل المسيح؛ يقول "نجاسينا" إن الدين لا ينبغي أن يتخذ مجرد وسيلة فرار يلوذ بها المعذبون ، بل يجب أن يكون سعي الزاهد حتى يبلغ مرحلة القداسة والحكمة دون أن يزعم وجود جنة أو إله، لأن هذا القديس يؤكد لنا أنه لا وجود لجنة أو إله(77).

From Alasanda the city of the Yonas came the thera ("elder") Yona Mahadhammarakkhita with thirty thousand bhikkhus.

— Mahavamsa, XXIX

 المنشآت البوذية

The Butkara stupa as expanded during the reign of Menander I.

 مناندر الثاني، حاكم بوذي آخر

Coin of Menander II "the Just".

Comparison of the portraits of Menander I (left) and Menander II (right).

 وفاة مناندر

Plutarch reports that Menander died in camp while on campaign, thereby differing with the version of the Milindapanha. Plutarch gives Menander as an example of benevolent rule, contrasting him with disliked tyrants such as Dionysius, and goes on explaining that his subject towns disputed about the honour of his burial, ultimately sharing his ashes among them and placing them in "monuments" (possibly stupas), in a manner reminiscent of the funerals of the Buddha.

Coin of Strato I and Agathokleia.
Obv: Conjugate busts of Strato and Agathokleia. Greek legend: BASILEOS SOTEROS STRATONOS KAI AGATOKLEIAS "Of King Strato the Saviour and Agathokleia".
Rev: Athena throwing thunderbolt. Kharoshthi legend: MAHARAJASA TRATASARA DHARMIKASA STRATASA "King Strato, Saviour and Just (="of the Dharma")".

 ذكراه

 البوذية

Vitarka Mudra gestures on Indo-Greek coinage. Top: Divinities Tyche and Zeus. Bottom: Depiction of Indo-Greek kings Nicias and Menander II.

 تمثيل البوذا

One of the first known representations of the Buddha, Gandhara.

Detail of Asia in the Ptolemy world map. The "Menander Mons" are in the center of the map, at the east of the Indian subcontinent, right above the شبه جزيرة الملايو.

 الجغرافيا

In Classical Antiquity, from at least the 1st century, the "Menander Mons", or "Mountains of Menander", came to designate the mountain chain at the extreme east of the Indian subcontinent, today's Naga Hills and Arakan, as indicated in the Ptolemy world map of the 1st century geographer Ptolemy.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 انظر أيضاً

• Kanishka
• Indo-Greek Kingdom
• Greco-Buddhism
• Indo-Scythians

 المراجع

• Monnaies Gréco-Bactriennes et Indo-Grecques, Catalogue Raisonné, Osmund Bopearachchi, 1991, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, ISBN 2-7177-1825-7.
• 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 1-58115-203-5
• Buddhism in Central Asia by B.N. Puri (Motilal Banarsidass Pub, January 1, 2000) ISBN 81-208-0372-8
• The Greeks in Bactria and India, W. W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press.
• Dictionary of Buddhism, Damien Keown, Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-860560-9
• De l'Indus à l'Oxus, Archéologie de l'Asie Centrale, Osmund Bopearachchi, Christine Sachs, ISBN 2-9516679-2-2
• The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity by John Boardman (Princeton University Press, 1994) ISBN 0-691-03680-2
• The Crossroads of Asia. Transformation in Image and symbol, 1992, ISBN 0-9518399-1-8
• Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian coins in the Smithsonian institution, Smithsonian Institution, Bopearachchi, 1993

 وصلات خارجية

• Coins of King Menander
• More coins of Menander
• Kapisa coinage of Menander
• The Debate of King Milinda
• The Questions of King Milinda
• Catalogue of the coins of Menander

سبقه دمتريوس الثاني من الهند

Indo-Greek ruler (Paropamisadae, Arachosia, Gandhara, Punjab) 155/150–130 BC

تبعه (In Paropamisadae, Arachosia:) Zoilos I (In Gandhara, Punjab:) Agathokleia