An account of a direct battle between the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom and the Shunga dynasty is also found in the Mālavikāgnimitram, a play by Kālidāsa which describes a battle between a squadron of Greek cavalrymen and Vasumitra, the grandson of Pushyamitra, accompanied by a hundred soldiers on the "Sindhu river", in which the Indians defeated a squadron of Greeks and Pushyamitra successfully completed the Ashvamedha Yagna.[1] This river may be the Indus River in the northwest, but such expansion by the Shungas is unlikely, and it is more probable that the river mentioned in the text is the Sindh River or the Kali Sindh River in the Ganges Basin.[2]
| Battle on the Sindhu River | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Shunga-Greek War | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Shunga Empire | Greco-Bactrian Kingdom | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
|
Vasumitra |
Demetrius II | ||||||||
References
edit- ^ The Malavikágnimitra : a Sanskrit play by Kālidāsa; Tawney, C. H. p.91
- ^ "Indo-Greek, Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian coins in the Smithsonian institution", Bopearachchi, p16. Also: "Kalidasa recounts in his Mālavikāgnimitra (5.15.14–24) that Puṣpamitra appointed his grandson Vasumitra to guard his sacrificial horse, which wandered on the right bank of the Sindhu river and was seized by Yavana cavalrymen- the latter being thereafter defeated by Vasumitra. The "Sindhu" referred to in this context may refer the river Indus: but such an extension of Shunga power seems unlikely, and it is more probable that it denotes one of two rivers in central India -either the Sindhu river which is a tributary of the Yamuna, or the Kali-Sindhu river which is a tributary of the Chambal." The Yuga Purana, Mitchener, 2002.