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ON THE ANCIENT 



The friendship which existed between the Greek and Indian 

 dynasties was renewed in 216, when Antiochos the Great 

 and Saubhagasena revived these amicable relations. But 

 independently of the Seleukidian power, Grecian influence was 

 growing, for Diodotos, Satrap of Bactria, declared himself in 

 250 B.C. independent, and established the Greco-Bactrian 

 kingdom, which in the time of Demetrios (205) comprised 

 even the country beyond the Jhelum. His successor, 

 Eukratides, struck coins with Greek and Indian inscriptions, 

 and though the western provinces of the Greco-Bactrian 

 kingdom became soon afterwards a prey to Parthian conquests, 

 it increased in the East, up to the Jumna and embraced even 

 Gujarat. But it did not last long. Its influence survived, 

 by introducing Greek thought and Greek civilization, to 

 which the Hindus through the temporary preponderance of 

 Buddhistic doctrines proved themselves rather susceptible. 

 The nicknames Yavanamunda and Kambojamunda, bald- 

 headed Greek and baldheaded Kamboja are explained from 

 the fact that those nations patronised Buddhism and that 

 Buddhist mendicants had their crowns shaven. 



Since the days of Alexander the Great and the decay of 

 their political independence, the Greeks turned cosmopolitans. 

 They spread everywhere, carrying with them their high 

 culture, and becoming the pioneers of refinement. Even in 

 the far East, they founded colonies as the Greek name of 

 some places proves. Iambulos crossed the Indian Archipe- 

 lago and Greek merchants resorted even to China. The 

 works of Strabo, of Plinius, the Periplus Maris Erythraei, the 

 writings of Dionysios Periegetes, Ptolemy, Arrianos and 

 others — amply testify to the great activity displayed by the 

 Greeks in their travels and in their commercial pursuits. In 

 latter times Alexandria in Egypt, became the great centre 

 where "Western and Eastern nations flocked together, but it 

 was not until Egypt had become a province of Rome that the 



