Gondophares I (
Greek: Γονδοφαρης ''Gondopharēs'', Υνδοφερρης ''Hyndopherrēs'';
Kharosthi
The Kharoṣṭhī script, also spelled Kharoshthi (Kharosthi: ), was an ancient Indo-Iranian script used by various Aryan peoples in north-western regions of the Indian subcontinent, more precisely around present-day northern Pakistan and e ...
: 𐨒𐨂𐨡𐨥𐨪 ', '; 𐨒𐨂𐨡𐨥𐨪𐨿𐨣 ', '; 𐨒𐨂𐨡𐨂𐨵𐨪 ', ') was the founder of the
Indo-Parthian Kingdom and its most prominent king, ruling from 19 to 46. He probably belonged to a line of local princes who had governed the
Parthian province of
Drangiana since its disruption by the
Indo-Scythians
Indo-Scythians (also called Indo-Sakas) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples of Scythian origin who migrated from Central Asia southward into modern day Pakistan and Northwestern India from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th centu ...
in c. 129 BC, and may have been a member of the
House of Suren. During his reign, his kingdom became independent from Parthian authority and was transformed into an empire, which encompassed Drangiana,
Arachosia
Arachosia () is the Hellenized name of an ancient satrapy situated in the eastern parts of the Achaemenid empire. It was centred around the valley of the Arghandab River in modern-day southern Afghanistan, and extended as far east as the In ...
, and
Gandhara. He is generally known from the
Acts of Thomas, the
Takht-i-Bahi inscription, and silver and copper coins bearing his visage.
He was succeeded in Drangiana and Arachosia by
Orthagnes
Gondophares III Gudana (Kharosthi: 𐨒𐨂𐨡𐨥𐨪 𐨒𐨂𐨜𐨣 ', 'Gardner, Percy, ''The Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India in the British Museum'', p. 109 Cunningham, Alexander, ''COINS OF THE INDO-SCYTHIANS.'' Th ...
, and in Gandhara by his nephew
Abdagases I.
Etymology
The name of Gondophares was not a personal name, but an epithet derived from the Middle Iranian name 𐭅𐭉𐭍𐭃𐭐𐭓𐭍, ''Windafarn'' (Parthian), and 𐭢𐭥𐭭𐭣𐭯𐭥, ''Gundapar'' (Middle Persian), in turn derived from the Old Iranian name 𐎻𐎡𐎭𐎳𐎼𐎴𐎠 (''Vi
ndafarnâ'', "May he find glory" (cf. Greek
Ἰνταφέρνης, ''Intaphernes'')), which was also the name of one of the six nobles that helped the
Achaemenid
The Achaemenid Empire or Achaemenian Empire (; peo, wikt:𐎧𐏁𐏂𐎶, 𐎧𐏁𐏂, , ), also called the First Persian Empire, was an History of Iran#Classical antiquity, ancient Iranian empire founded by Cyrus the Great in 550 BC. Bas ...
king of kings (''
shah
Shah (; fa, شاه, , ) is a royal title that was historically used by the leading figures of Iranian monarchies.Yarshater, EhsaPersia or Iran, Persian or Farsi, ''Iranian Studies'', vol. XXII no. 1 (1989) It was also used by a variety of ...
anshah'')
Darius the Great
Darius I ( peo, 𐎭𐎠𐎼𐎹𐎺𐎢𐏁 ; grc-gre, Δαρεῖος ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was a Persian ruler who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his d ...
() to seize the throne. In old
Armenian, it is "Gastaphar". "Gundaparnah" was apparently the Eastern Iranian form of the name.
Ernst Herzfeld claims his name is perpetuated in the name of the Afghan city
Kandahar
Kandahar (; Kandahār, , Qandahār) is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on the Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118. It is the c ...
, which he founded under the name Gundopharron.
Background
Gondophares may have been a member of the
House of Suren, one of the most esteemed families in Arsacid Iran, that not only had the hereditary right to lead the royal military, but also to place the crown on the Parthian king at the coronation. In c. 129 BC, the eastern portions of the Parthian Empire, primarily
Drangiana, was invaded by nomadic peoples, mainly by the Eastern Iranian
Saka
The Saka ( Old Persian: ; Kharoṣṭhī: ; Ancient Egyptian: , ; , old , mod. , ), Shaka (Sanskrit ( Brāhmī): , , ; Sanskrit (Devanāgarī): , ), or Sacae (Ancient Greek: ; Latin: ) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples who histo ...
(
Indo-Scythians
Indo-Scythians (also called Indo-Sakas) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples of Scythian origin who migrated from Central Asia southward into modern day Pakistan and Northwestern India from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th centu ...
) and the Indo-European
Yuezhi, thus giving the rise to the name of the province of
Sakastan
Sistān ( fa, سیستان), known in ancient times as Sakastān ( fa, سَكاستان, "the land of the Saka"), is a historical and geographical region in present-day Eastern Iran ( Sistan and Baluchestan Province) and Southern Afghanistan ...
("land of the Saka").
As a result of these invasions, the Suren family was probably given control of Sakastan in order to defend the empire from further nomad incursions; the Surenids not only may have managed to repel the Indo-Scythians, but also to invade and seize their lands in
Arachosia
Arachosia () is the Hellenized name of an ancient satrapy situated in the eastern parts of the Achaemenid empire. It was centred around the valley of the Arghandab River in modern-day southern Afghanistan, and extended as far east as the In ...
and
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...
, thus resulting in the establishment of the
Indo-Parthian Kingdom.
Rule
Gondophares ascended the throne in c. 19, and quickly declared independence from the Parthian Empire, minting coins in Drangiana where he assumed the
Greek title of ''
autokrator'' ("one who rules by himself").
Gondophares I has traditionally been given a later date; the reign of one king calling himself Gondophares has been established at 20 AD by the rock inscription he set up at
Takht-i-Bahi near
Mardan,
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
, in 46 AD., and he has also been connected with the third-century ''
Acts of Thomas''.
Gondophares I took over the
Kabul
Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into #Districts, 22 municipal dist ...
valley and the
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...
and
Sindh region area from the
Scythian king
Azes
Azes I (Greek: , epigraphically ; Kharosthi: , ) was an Indo-Scythian ruler who ruled around c. 48/47 BCE – 25 BCE with a dynastic empire based in the Punjab and Indus Valley, completed the domination of the Scythians in the northwestern Indi ...
. In reality, a number of vassal rulers seem to have switched allegiance from the Indo-Scythians to Gondophares I. His empire was vast, but was only a loose framework, which fragmented soon after his death. His capital was the Gandharan city of
Taxila. Taxila is located in Punjab to the west of the present Islamabad.
Chronology
On the coins of Gondophares, the royal names are Iranian, but the other legends of the coins are in Greek and
Kharoṣṭhī.
Ernst Herzfeld maintained that the dynasty of Gondophares represented the
House of Suren.
The Biblical Magus "Gaspar"
The name of Gondophares was translated in Armenian in "Gastaphar", and then in Western languages into "Gasbar
Gaspas, Caspus, Kaspar, גִזבָּר ". He may be the "Gasbar
Treasurer and King of Persia", who, according to apocryphal texts and eastern Christian tradition, was one of the three
Biblical Magi
The biblical Magi from Middle Persian ''moɣ''(''mard'') from Old Persian ''magu-'' 'Zoroastrian clergyman' ( or ; singular: ), also referred to as the (Three) Wise Men or (Three) Kings, also the Three Magi were distinguished foreigners in the ...
who attended the birth of Christ. Through this interaction and association, Gaspar
was adopted by the Europeans (and in Western tradition) as a male first name.
Connection with Saint Thomas and Apollonius of Tyana
The apocryphical ''
Acts of Thomas'' mentions one king ''Gudnaphar''. This king has been associated with Gondophares I by scholars such as M. Reinaud, as it was not yet established that there were several kings with the same name. Since St. Thomas is said to have lived there in a specific time frame, this is often used to provide more specific chronology to an otherwise historiographically lacking time frame. Richard N. Frye, Emeritus Professor of Iranian Studies at Harvard University, has noted that this ruler has been identified with a king called Caspar in the Christian tradition of the Apostle St Thomas and his visit to India. Recent numismatic research by R.C. Senior supports the notion that the king who best fits these references was Gondophares-
Sases, the fourth king using the title Gondophares.
A. D. H. Bivar, writing in ''The Cambridge History of Iran'', said that the reign dates of one Gondophares recorded in the Takht-i Bahi inscription (20–46 or later AD) are consistent with the dates given in the ''Apocryphal Acts of Thomas'' for the Apostle's voyage to India following the Crucifixion in c. 30 AD. B. N. Puri, of the Department of Ancient Indian History and Archaeology, University of Lucknow, India, also identified Gondophares with the ruler said to have been converted by Saint Thomas the Apostle. The same goes for the reference to an Indo-Parthian king in the accounts of the life of
Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana ( grc, Ἀπολλώνιος ὁ Τυανεύς; c. 3 BC – c. 97 AD) was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Anatolia. He is the subject of ...
. Puri says that the dates given by Philostratus in his ''Life of Apollonius of Tyana'' for Apollonius' visit to Taxila, 43–44 AD, are within the period of the reign of Gondophares I, who also went by the Parthian name, Phraotes.
Saint Thomas was brought before King Gundaphar (Gondophares) at his capital, Taxila. "Taxila" is the Greek form of the contemporary Pali name for the city, "Takkasila", from the Sanskrit "Taksha-sila". The name of the city was transformed in subsequent legends concerning Thomas, which were consolidated into the ''Historia Trium Regum (History of the Three Kings)'' by John of Hildesheim (1364–1375), into "Silla", "Egrisilla", "Grisculla", and so on, the name having undergone a process of metamorphosis similar to that which transformed "Vindapharnah" (Gondophares) to "Caspar".
Hildesheim's ''Historia Trium Regum'' says: "In the third India is the kingdom of Tharsis, which at that time was ruled over by King Caspar, who offered incense to our Lord. The famous island Eyrisoulla
r Egrocilla
R, or r, is the eighteenth letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ar'' (pronounced ), plural ''ars'', or in Irela ...
lies in this land: it is there that the holy apostle St Thomas is buried". "Egrisilla" appears on the globe made in Nuremberg by
Martin Behaim in 1492, where it appears on the southernmost part of the peninsula of Hoch India, "High India" or "India Superior", on the eastern side of the
Sinus Magnus ("Great Gulf", the
Gulf of Thailand): there Egrisilla is identified with the inscription, ''das lant wird genant egtisilla,'' ("the land called Egrisilla"). In his study of Behaim's globe,
E. G. Ravenstein noted: "Egtisilla, or Eyrisculla
r Egrisilla: the letters "r" and "t" in the script on the globe look similar is referred to in John of Hildesheim's version of the ‘Three Kings’ as an island where St. Thomas lies buried".
[E. G. Ravenstein, ''Martin Behaim: His Life and His Globe,'' London, George Philip, 1908, p.95.]
See also
*
Indo-Greek Kingdom
*
Indo-Scythians
Indo-Scythians (also called Indo-Sakas) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples of Scythian origin who migrated from Central Asia southward into modern day Pakistan and Northwestern India from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th centu ...
*
Kushan Empire
The Kushan Empire ( grc, Βασιλεία Κοσσανῶν; xbc, Κυϸανο, ; sa, कुषाण वंश; Brahmi: , '; BHS: ; xpr, 𐭊𐭅𐭔𐭍 𐭇𐭔𐭕𐭓, ; zh, 貴霜 ) was a syncretic empire, formed by the Yuezhi, ...
References
Sources
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Further reading
*
A. E. Medlycott, ''India and the Apostle Thomas,'' London 1905 Chapter i: "The Apostle Thomas and Gondophares the Indian king"
Coins of Gondophares
Indo-Parthian kings
1st-century monarchs in Asia
House of Suren
1st-century Iranian people
Zoroastrian rulers
49 deaths
{{Indo-Parthian kings