Indo-Scythian Coinage

Indo-Scythian coinage is the money issued by the Saka rulers who governed parts of present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-western and western India from about the 1st century BCE. The Sakas were a Central Asian people related to the Scythians of the steppe, and their coins combined the Indo-Greek tradition they inherited with their own royal imagery.

The term covers two broad groups: the kings of the north-west, such as Maues and Azes, and the satraps (provincial governors) who later ruled independently in western and northern India, of whom the Western Satraps were the longest-lasting.

Saka groups moved south from Central Asia in the 2nd century BCE and displaced the Indo-Greek kingdoms of the Indus region, themselves heirs of the Greek rulers of Bactria who had broken away from the realm behind Seleucid coinage. Maues, usually placed in the early or mid-1st century BCE, is the first major Saka king known from coins. He was followed by Azes I and Azilises, and later by coins struck in the name of Azes, whose number and dates remain debated. An era of Azes, used in some inscriptions, is linked by many scholars to a starting year around 57 BCE, but the question is not settled.

The Sakas took over the bilingual model of the Indo-Greek kings. Coins carry a Greek legend on one side and a translation in Prakrit, written in the Kharoshthi script, on the other. Royal titles such as "great king of kings" appear in both languages.

The best-known Indo-Scythian type shows the king on horseback, holding a spear or whip, an image that announced a ruling class of mounted warriors. Reverses draw on Greek deities such as Zeus, Athena, Nike and Poseidon, as well as Indian figures and animals including the bull and the lion. Square copper coins, a format inherited from earlier Indian and Indo-Greek practice, were struck alongside round ones.

Silver was issued mainly as tetradrachms and drachms on the lighter Indian weight standard used by the Indo-Greeks, rather than the Attic standard of the Attic drachma. Copper and bronze coins were struck in large numbers for everyday trade. Later silver issues, particularly under the successors of Azes, show falling silver content, a common pattern of currency debasement in the region.

In Gujarat, Malwa and neighbouring areas, Saka satraps ruled from about the 1st to the late 4th century CE. Their small silver drachms, about 2 grams, show the ruler's head with a debased Greek legend on the obverse and symbols such as a hill-shaped mound with crescent and star on the reverse, with a Brahmi legend naming the ruler and his father. From the late 2nd century CE many of these coins carry a date in the Saka era, making them among the earliest regularly dated coins in Indian history. The series ended with the conquest of the region by the Gupta kings, who imitated the satrap drachm in their own western silver.

In the north-west, Saka rule gave way to the Indo-Parthian kings, of whom Gondophares is the best known, and then to the Kushans, whose gold Kushana dinar marked a new phase. The Indo-Scythian horseman type and bilingual legends influenced both. Further west, the Saka region of eastern Iran lay within the sphere of the Parthian drachm, and the two coinages share features of style and title.

Together these issues show how the Greek coin reached South Asia and was adapted by successive ruling groups, before later rulers such as the Alchon Huns added further layers. Indo-Scythian coins are also a main source for the political history of the period, since many rulers are known only from their currency. For long-run context, see the Indian rupee and the general entry on money.

• British Museum
• American Numismatic Society