Maues
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Maues (reigned circa 85-60 BCE) was an Indo-Scythian king who invaded the Indo-Greek territories of modern Pakistan.
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[edit] Conqueror of Gandhara
Maues had his capital in Sirkap and minted most of his coins in Taxila. Maues did not manage however to conquer the Punjab territories of the Indo-Greeks east of the Jhelum, which remained under Greek control. After his death the Indo-Greeks regained most of their territory.
Maues is mainly known through his coins, which are often very closely inspired from Indo-Greek coinage. He represented Greek and Indian deities, and used Greek and Kharoshti in coin legends.
This tends to be indicative of a level of respect for Greek culture and a wish to assimilate it, rather than destroy it. Maues probably ruled his conquered territories based on his military might, but otherwise maintained cohabitation with local Greek and Indian communities. It has been suggested that Maues may have been a Scythian general hired by the Indo-Greeks, who would have briefly seized power, before the Indo-Greeks managed to take it back ("Crossroads of Asia").
Maues took the tile of "Great King of Kings", an exceeded version of a traditional Persian royal title.
One inscription is known which mentions Maues (usually called the "Moga inscription", and starts with:
- "In the seventy eighth, 78, year the Great King, the Great Moga, on the fifth, 5, day of the month Panemos, on this first, of the Kshaharata and Kshatrapa of Chukhsa - Liaka Kusuluka by name - his son Patika - in the town of Takshasila..." [1]
[edit] Maues and Buddhism
A few of the coins of Maues, struck according to the Indian square standard, seamingly depict a King in a cross-legged seated position. This may represent Maues himself, or possibly one of his divinities. It has been suggested that this might also be one of the first representations of the Buddha on a coin, in an area where Buddhism was flourishing at the time.
Also, Maues struck some coins incorporating Buddhist symbolism, such as the lion, symbol of Buddhism since the time of the Mauryan king Ashoka.
The symbolism of the lion had also been adopted by the Buddhist Indo-Greek king Menander II. Maues therefore probably supported Buddhism, although whether sincerely or for political motives is unclear. His coins also included a variety of other religious symbol such as the cow of Shiva, indicating wide religious tolerance.
[edit] Other theories on origins
Scholars are at variance regarding the ethnic background of king Moga. According to Dr V. A. Smith, H. A. Rose, Chandra Chakravarty etc, Maues was a Parthian king.
However, another view is that king Maues belonged to Kamuia clan which fact is born out by Mathura Lion Capital Inscriptions. Arta is said to be the elder brother of king Maues [2]. Yuvaraja Kharaosta Kamuio was son of Arta as is attested from Kharaosta’s own coins [3]. Princess Aiyasi Kamuia, the chief queen of Kshatrapa Rajuvula, was the daughter of this Crown prince (Yuvaraja) Kharaosta Kamuio [4]. Many scholars including Dr S. Konow recognise the names Kamuia & Kamuio (q.v) of the Mathura Lion Capital Inscriptions as the Kharoshthi/Prakritic forms of Sanskrit/Pali Kambojika or Kamboja [5]. Hence according to this view, king Maues, Arta, Kharaosta Kamuio and Aiyasi Kamuia belonged to the Kambojaka or Kamboja clan or lineage[6].
| Preceded by: (In Arachosia, Gandhara and Punjab) Indo-Greek King Archebios (In Paropamisadae) Indo-Greek King Hermaeus |
Indo-Scythian Ruler (85-60 BCE) |
Succeeded by: (In Gandhara) Indo-Greek king: Artemidoros (In Punjab) Indo-Greek king: Apollodotus II (In the south) Indo-Scythian ruler: Vonones |
[edit] Notes
- ^ Moga inscription
- ^ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland - 1834, p 142 by Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland; Corpus Inscrioptionum Indicarum, Vol II, Part I, pp xxxvi, 36, S Konow; Early Inscriptions of Mathurā: A Study, 1980, p 27, Kalyani Das; Ancient India, 1956, p 220, Dr Radha Kumud Mukerjee; History of Indian Administration - 1968, p 94, Dr B. N Puri; cf: Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen - 1931, p 12, Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen, Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Göttingische anzeigen von gelehrten sachen; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, 1981, pp 306-09.
- ^ Kshatrapasa pra Kharaostasa Artasa putrasa (i.e. Kshatrapa Kharaosta, son of Arta).
- ^ See: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland - 1834, p 141, by Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland - Page 23 by Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland; History of Indian Administration, 1968, p 107, Baij Nath Puri; Political and Social Movements in Ancient Panjab (from the Vedic Age Upto [sic] the Maurya Period), 1964, p 258, Dr Buddha Prakash; Indian Linguistics, 1931, p 549, Linguistic Society of India; Aspects of Ancient Indian Administration - 1979, p 58, Dilip Kumar Ganguly; History of civilizations of Central Asia - 1999, p 201, Ahmad Hasan Dani, Vadim Mikhaĭlovich Masson, János Harmatta, Boris Abramovich Litvinovskiĭ, Clifford Edmund Bosworth, Unesco; see also: (Mathura Lion Capital).
- ^ Khroshthi Inscriptions, No 15, A3; Notes on Indo-Scythian chronology, Journal of Indian History, xii, 21; Corpus Inscrioptionum Indicarum, Vol II, Part I, pp xxxvi, 36, Dr. S. Konow e.g: "If we bear in mind that 'mb' becomes 'm', i.e mm in the dialect of the Kharoshthi Dhammapada and that common 'o' becomes 'u' as in Sudasa, then Kamuia may very well represent Sanskrit Kambojika" (Dr Konow); See also: Literary History of Ancient Indiain Relation to its Racial, and Linguistic Affiliations, 1952, pp 46,165, Chandra Chakravarty; Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland - 1834, p 141, by Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland; cf also: ” Dr Stein Konow’s recognition of Kamuia, occurring in the Lion Capital Inscription of Mathura, as = Kambojika is convincing”…See: Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Vol XVI, 1930, part III and IV, p 229, Dr K. P. Jayswal; "Ancient Kamboja", in Iran and Islam, ed. by C. E. Bosworth, Edinburgh, 1971, pp. 66, Dr H. W. Bailey; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, pp 41, 227/228, Dr J. L. Kamboj; Kambojas Through the Ages, 2005, p90, Kirpal Singh Dardi.
- ^ Refs: Corpus Inscrioptionum Indicarum, Vol II, Part I, pp xxxvi, 36, S Konow: "I shall only add that if Kharoshtha and his father Arta were Kambojas, the same may have been the case with Moga, and we understand why the Kambojas are sometimes mentioned with the Sakas and Yavanas" ( Dr S Konow); Ancient India, pp 320-21, Dr R. K. Mukerjee; Journal of Indian History - 1921, p viii, by University of Kerala, University of Allahabad Department of Modern Indian History, University of Travancore; Ancient Kamboja, People and the Country, 1981, pp 41, 306-09, Dr J. L. Kamboj; These Kamboj People, 1979, p 141; Kambojas Through the Ages, 2005, pp 168-69, Kirpal Singh Dardi; India and the World, 1964, p 154, Dr Buddha Prakash; Balocistān: Siyāsī Kashmakash, Muz̤mirāt Va Rujḥānāt, 1989, p 2, Munīr Aḥmad Marrīتاريخ قوم كمبوه: جديد تحقيق كى روشنى ميں, 1996, p 221, Yusuf Husain etc.
[edit] See also
- Yuezhi
- Greco-Bactrian Kingdom
- Indo-Greek Kingdom
- Indo-Parthian Kingdom
- Kushan Empire
- Kambojas
- Aiyasi Kamuia
- Kharaosta Kamuio
- Arta Kamuia
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- "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
- "The Greeks in Bactria and India", W.W. Tarn, Cambridge University Press.
- "The Crossroads of Asia. Transformation in image and symbol" ISBN 0-9518399-1-8
