Indo-Parthian Kingdom | ||||||||||
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Indo-Parthian Kingdom at its maximum extent.
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Capital |
Taxila Kabul |
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Languages |
Aramaic Greek (Greek alphabet) Pali (Kharoshthi script) Sanskrit, Prakrit (Brahmi script) Parthian (Parthian script) |
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Religion |
Zoroastrianism Buddhism Hinduism Ancient Greek religion |
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Government | Monarchy | |||||||||
King | ||||||||||
• | 20 BCE | Gondophares I | ||||||||
Historical era | Antiquity | |||||||||
• | Gondophares I | 12 BCE | ||||||||
• | Disestablished | c. 130 CE | ||||||||
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The Indo-Parthian Kingdom was ruled by the Gondopharid dynasty and other rulers who were a group of ancient kings from Central Asia that ruled parts of present-day Afghanistan, Pakistan and northwestern India, during or slightly before the 1st century AD. For most of their history, the leading Gondopharid kings held Taxila (in the present Punjab province of Pakistan) as their residence, but during their last few years of existence the capital shifted between Kabul and Peshawar. These kings have traditionally been referred to as Indo-Parthians, as their coinage was often inspired by the Arsacid dynasty, but they probably belonged to a wider groups of Iranian tribes who lived east of Parthia proper, and there is no evidence that all the kings who assumed the title Gondophares, which means ”Holder of Glory”, were even related.
Gondophares I originally seems to have been a ruler of Seistan in what is today eastern Iran, probably a vassal or relative of the Apracarajas. Around 20–10 BCE, he made conquests in the former Indo-Scythian kingdom, perhaps after the death of the important ruler Azes. Gondophares became the ruler of areas comprising Arachosia, Seistan, Sindh, Punjab, and the Kabul valley, but it does not seem as though he held territory beyond eastern Punjab. Gondophares called himself "King of Kings", a Parthian title that in his case correctly reflects that the Indo-Parthian empire was only a loose framework: a number of smaller dynasts certainly maintained their positions during the Indo-Parthian period, likely in exchange for their recognition of Gondophares and his successors. These smaller dynasts included the Apracarajas themselves, and Indo-Scythian satraps such as Zeionises and Rajuvula, as well as anonymous Scythians who struck imitations of Azes coins. The Ksaharatas also held sway in Gujerat, perhaps just outside Gondophares' dominions.