The Archaeologist

View Original

Abandoned History: The Greek Buddhist King Who Conquered India

Demetrius I “The Unconquered”, King of Bactria took the Bactrian throne in 200 BC after the death of his father Euthydemus I. Bactria is a region that encompasses parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. One fascinating aspect of the Greco-Bactrians was their eventual conversion to and development of “Greco-Buddhism”. Demetrius I “the Unconquered” Was himself a Buddhist. But he and many other Greco-Buddhists still venerated the greek pantheon as well. At the time of his death, his realm was said to span from the Aral sea in the north to the Kathiawar peninsula in the south to the mountains of Daylam in the west to the deserts of Xinjiang in the far east.