Shinkot casket inscription segments A A1 and C

Shinkot casket inscription segments B and D

The Shinkot casket, also Bajaur reliquary of the reign of Menander, is a

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

reliquary from the Bajaur area in Gandhara, thought to mention the reign of the 2nd century BCE

Indo-Greek The Indo-Greek Kingdom, or Graeco-Indian Kingdom, also known historically as the Yavana Kingdom (Yavanarajya), was a Hellenistic-era Greek kingdom covering various parts of Afghanistan and the northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent ( ...

king

Menander I Menander I Soter ( grc, Μένανδρος Σωτήρ, Ménandros Sōtḗr, Menander the Saviour; pi, मिलिन्दो, Milinda), was a Greco-Bactrian and later Indo-Greek King (reigned c.165/155Bopearachchi (1998) and (1991), respectivel ...

. The steatite casket is said to have contained a silver and a gold reliquary at the time of discovery, but they have been lost.

Inscription

This casket is probably the oldest known inscribed Buddhist relic casket from the area of Gandhara. One of its inscriptions, in the place of honour on the lid, mentions: ''Minedrasa maharajasa kaṭiasa divasa 44411'', being translated as "On the 14th day of Kārtikka, in the reign of the

Maharaja Mahārāja (; also spelled Maharajah, Maharaj) is a Sanskrit title for a "great ruler", "great king" or " high king". A few ruled states informally called empires, including ruler raja Sri Gupta, founder of the ancient Indian Gupta Empire, a ...

Minadra", the ''Maharaja'' ("Great King") ''Minadra'' in question being Menander. Menander is otherwise known from his coins, which are generally bilingual in Greek and Kharoshthi, where his Kharoshthi name is given as ''Menadra''. On his coinage, the full title of king Menander appears as ''Menadrasa Maharajasa Trataresa'' "Saviour Great King Menander". In the

Milindapanha The ''Milinda Pañha'' () is a Buddhist text which dates from sometime between 100 BC and 200 AD. It purports to record a dialogue between the Indian Buddhist sage Nāgasena, and the 2nd century BC Indo-Greek king Menander I (Pali: ''Milinda' ...

, his name is given as ''Milinda''. A translation of the different fragments has been made: The characters are very clear and without ambiguity. The "Great King Menander" segment (𐨨𐨁𐨣𐨡𐨿𐨪𐨯 𐨨𐨱𐨪𐨗𐨯, ''Minadrasa Maharajasa'') also reads clearly. Paleographically, the shape of the letters of inscriptions C and D correspond to the period of the

Indo-Scythian 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 centur ...

Northern Satraps The Northern Satraps (Brahmi: , ''Kṣatrapa'', "Satraps" or , ''Mahakṣatrapa'', "Great Satraps"), or sometimes Satraps of Mathura, or Northern Sakas, are a dynasty of Indo-Scythian rulers who held sway over the area of Eastern Punjab and Math ...

of Taxila and

Mathura Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately north of Agra, and south-east of Delhi; about from the town of Vrindavan, and from Govardhan. ...

in the 1st century BCE, and are lightly incised, almost only scratched, while the letters in A and B are characteristic of an earlier type, closer to the type of the

Ashoka Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, s ...

inscriptions in the

Kharoshthi 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 ...

script, and are bold and deeply incised. The later segments of the inscription were apparently made under the orders of

Vijayamitra Vijayamitra (ruled 12 BCE - 20 CE) was an Indo-Scythian king of the Apracas who ruled in the north-western region of ancient India, located in Bajaur of modern Pakistan. Rukhana reliquary Vijayamitra is mentioned in a recently discovered inscr ...

, king of the Apracarajas (ruled 12 BCE - 15 CE). He appears in D as ''Vijayamitra apracarajena'', which, previously translated literally as "Vijayamitra, the King without adversaries", is now understood as "Vijayamitra, the King of the Apracas", an

tribe now known from other archaeological remains from the region of Bajaur. The authenticity of the inscription pertaining to Menander has been doubted by Harry Falk in 2005, but later upheld by Stefan Baums in his 2017 article on Gandharan inscriptions, "A framework for Gandharan chronology based on relic inscriptions". The content of the inscriptions was fully published in 1937 in Epigraphia Indica, Vol.24, by Majumdar, who saw the casket in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, but its whereabouts are now unknown.

References

*Baums, Stefan, and Andrew Glass. 2002–
''Catalog of Gāndhārī Texts''
no
CKI 176

Sources

* * * {{Gandhara 2nd-century BC works Archaeological discoveries in Pakistan Bajaur District Buddhist reliquaries Indo-Greeks Menander I

Inscription

See also

References

Sources