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DEMETRIOS AND MENANDER
381 were achieved partly by Menander, partly by Demetrios, son of Euthydemos, king of the Bactrians. They got possession not only of Patalene (the Indus Delta), but of the kingdoms of Saraostos (Surāshtra or Kāțhiā wār), and Sigerdis (probably Sāgaradvipa)' which constitute the remainder of the coast. Apollodoros in short says that Bactriana is the ornament of all Ariana. They extended their empire even as far as the Seres and Phryni.”2
Strabo gives the credit for spreading the Greek dominion furthest to the east into India partly to Menander and partly to Demetrios, son of Euthydemos and son-inlaw of Antiochos the Great. -
Menander has been identified with the king Milinda who is mentioned in the Milinda-pañho as a contemporary of the Buddhist Thera (Elder) Nāgasena, and also in the Avadāna-kalpalatā of Kshemendra. This monarch was born at Kalsigrāma* in the "Island” of Alasanda or Alexandria 5 and had his capital at Sāgala or Sākala, modern Siālkot, in the Pañjāb, 6 and not at Kābul as Dr. Smith seemed to think. The extent of his conquests is indicated by the great variety and wide diffusion of his coins which have been found over a very wide extent of country as far west as Begram near Kābul and as far east as Mathurā.8 The author of the Periplus states
1 Mahābharāta, 11. 31. 66, Cutch ?
2 Strabo, Hamilton and Falconer, Vol. II, pp. 252-53. The Chinese and peoples of the Tarim basin are apparently meant.
3 Stupa avadāna (No. 57); Smith, Catalogue of Coins, Indian Museum, p. 3; SBE, 36, xvii.
4 Trenckner. Milindapānho, p. 83.
5 Ibid, p. 82 (CHI, 550). The identity of this "Alexandria" is uncertain. Tarn (p. 141 ) seems to prefer Alexandria in the Kābul Valley. The Milinda, VI. 21. seems to suggest location on the sea unless a different Alexandria is meant.
6 Milinda, pp. 3, 14. 7 EHI., 1914, p. 225. 8 SBE., Vol. XXXV, p. xx. Tarn, 228.
