Menander I, 155-130 BC, Drachm

Menander I Soter, Drachm, AR, 155–130 BC, uncertain mint; 2.40 g, 16 mm. Obverse: Diademed bust of Menander right; Greek legend BASILEOS SOTEROS MENANDROU. Reverse: Athena Alkidemos advancing left, brandishing thunderbolt and holding shield; Kharosthi legend Maharajasa tratarasa Menamdrasa around; monogram in field. Bilingual silver issue struck at an uncertain mint in the Indo-Greek realm. Bopearachchi 16l.

Menander I ruled in the mid-2nd century BC across parts of Bactria and northwestern India; his bilingual coinage with Greek and Kharosthi legends documents Hellenistic governance in a multi-lingual environment and the transmission of Macedonian iconography (Athena Alkidemos) into South Asia. The Pali Milinda Pañha records dialogues with a king Menander, generally identified with this ruler, providing a literary counterpart to his coinage and evidence for interaction between Greek and Buddhist intellectual traditions.