Menander I

Menander I
Indo-Greek king
Portrait of Menander I.
Reign	165/155–130 BC
Predecessor	Antimachus II
Successor	Strato I
Born	Kalasi, Alexandria of the Caucasus (present day Bagram, Afghanistan)
Died	130 BC
Burial	Stupas across the Indo-Greek Kingdom
Consort	Agathokleia
Issue	Strato I
House	House of Euthydemus
Religion	Buddhism

Menander I Soter (Ancient Greek: Μένανδρος Α΄ ὁ Σωτήρ, Ménandros A' ho Sōtḗr, "Menander I the Saviour"; known in Indian Pali sources as Milinda) was an Indo-Greek King of the Indo-Greek Kingdom (165//155 –130 BC) who established a large empire in Northwestern regions of South Asia and became a patron of Buddhism.

Menander was initially a king of Bactria. After conquering the Punjab he established an empire in South Asia stretching from the Kabul River valley in the west to the Ravi River in the east, and from the Swat River valley in the north to Arachosia (the Helmand Province). Ancient Indian writers indicate that he launched expeditions southward into Rajasthan and as far east down the Ganges River Valley as Pataliputra (Patna), and the Greek geographer Strabo wrote that he "conquered more tribes than Alexander the Great."

Large numbers of Menander’s coins have been unearthed, attesting to both the flourishing commerce and duration of his realm. Menander was also a patron of Buddhism, and his conversations with the Buddhist sage Nagasena are recorded in the important Buddhist work, the Milinda Panha ("The Questions of King Milinda"; panha meaning "question" in Pali). After his death in 130 BC, he was succeeded by his wife Agathokleia who ruled as regent for his son Strato I. Buddhist tradition relates that he handed over his kingdom to his son and retired from the world, but Plutarch relates that he died in camp while on a military campaign, and that his remains were divided equally between the cities to be enshrined in monuments, probably stupas, across his realm.