Q1.
What do you think might have been the meaning of having deities like Vāsudeva-Kṛiṣhṇa or Lakṣhmī on some Indo-Greek coins?
Answer
It means the Indo-Greek rulers were speaking to their Indian subjects in a language those subjects understood — and that they themselves had begun to accept Indian gods.
Most Indo-Greek coins carry a king on one side and a Greek deity on the other. When a coin carries Vāsudeva-Kṛiṣhṇa (shown on the square silver coin in Fig. 6.20 holding a wheel and a mace-like object) or Lakṣhmī instead, something has changed. Possible meanings, all supported by the chapter:
- Winning acceptance. Rulers who arrived as conquerors needed their coins to be trusted in bazaars full of Indian traders. A familiar deity made the money — and the ruler — acceptable.
- Genuine adoption of local beliefs. The chapter says they were “much influenced by the rich local culture”. The Heliodorus pillar proves it: an Indo-Greek ambassador calls Vāsudeva the ‘god of gods' and records three precepts — self-restraint, charity, consciousness.
- A political message. Putting an Indian deity on state currency says: we belong here now; this is our land too.
- Prosperity, in the case of Lakṣhmī. A coin is about wealth, and Lakṣhmī is the goddess associated with it — a well-chosen image for money.
- Evidence of cultural confluence. Greek script and Greek portrait style on one side, an Indian deity on the other: the two worlds meeting on a single small object.
Why coins are such good evidence: the chapter notes that Indo-Greek coins “have provided most of the information we have about these rulers”. Made of gold, silver, copper and nickel, they survive when buildings and books do not, and they were issued by the state — so what appears on them was deliberately chosen.
Tip: the same reasoning explains Kaṇiṣhka's coins two pages later — Buddha on one, Śhiva with Nandi on another. Rulers of foreign origin repeatedly used coinage to show respect for the beliefs of the people they governed.