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 Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', ''Chasse (casket), chasse'', or ''phylactery'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary, or the room in which one is stored, may also be called a ''feretory''. Relics may be the purported ...

from the Bajaur area in

Gandhara Gandhara () was an ancient Indo-Aryan people, Indo-Aryan civilization in present-day northwest Pakistan and northeast Afghanistan. The core of the region of Gandhara was the Peshawar valley, Peshawar (Pushkalawati) and Swat valleys extending ...

, thought to mention the reign of the 2nd century BCE

Indo-Greek The Indo-Greek Kingdom, also known as the Yavana Kingdom, was a Hellenistic period, Hellenistic-era Ancient Greece, Greek kingdom covering various parts of modern-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern India. The term "Indo-Greek Kingdom" ...

king

Menander I Menander I Soter (, ; ), sometimes called Menander the Great, was an Indo-Greek king (reigned /155Bopearachchi (1998) and (1991), respectively. The first date is estimated by Osmund Bopearachchi and R. C. Senior, the other Boperachchi –1 ...

. 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

. 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 Maharaja (also spelled Maharajah or Maharaj; ; feminine: Maharani) is a royal title in Indian subcontinent, Indian subcontinent of Sanskrit origin. In modern India and Medieval India, medieval northern India, the title was equivalent to a pri ...

Minadra", the ''Maharaja'' ("Great King") ''Minadra'' in question being

Menander Menander (; ; c. 342/341 – c. 290 BC) was a Greek scriptwriter and the best-known representative of Athenian Ancient Greek comedy, New Comedy. He wrote 108 comedies and took the prize at the Lenaia festival eight times. His record at the Cit ...

. 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 ''Milindapañha'' () 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 The Indo-Scythians, also known as Indo-Sakas, were a group of nomadic people of Iranian peoples, Iranic Scythians, Scythian origin who migrated from Central Asia southward into the present-day regions of Afghanistan, Eastern Iran and the northwe ...

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 ("Saka") rulers who held sway over the area of Punjab and Math ...

Taxila Taxila or Takshashila () is a city in the Pothohar region of Punjab, Pakistan. Located in the Taxila Tehsil of Rawalpindi District, it lies approximately northwest of the Islamabad–Rawalpindi metropolitan area and is just south of the ...

and

Mathura Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the states and union territories of India, Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located south-east of Delhi; and about from the town of Vrindavan. In ancient ti ...

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 known as Asoka or Aśoka ( ; , ; – 232 BCE), and popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was List of Mauryan emperors, Emperor of Magadha from until #Death, his death in 232 BCE, and the third ruler from the Mauryan dynast ...

inscriptions in the

Kharoshthi Kharosthi script (), also known as the Gandhari script (), was an ancient script originally developed in the Gandhara Region of modern-day Pakistan, between the 5th and 3rd century BCE. used primarily by the people of Gandhara alongside vari ...

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

Vijayamitra Vijayamitra was an Apracharajas, Apracharaja who ruled in Gandhara, with his capital in Bajaur. He succeeded the previous Apracharaja, Visnuvarma, in 3 BCE with a reign lasting til 32 CE. Rukhana reliquary Vijayamitra is mentioned in a recently ...

, 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 ''Epigraphia Indica'' was the official publication of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) from 1882 to 1977. The first volume was edited by James Burgess in the year 1882. Between 1892 and 1920 it was published as a quarterly supplement to ...

, Vol.24, by Majumdar, who saw the casket in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies 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 artifacts Archaeological discoveries in Pakistan Bajaur District Buddhist reliquaries Indo-Greeks Menander I

Inscription

See also

References

Sources