Western Satraps’ “drachma” from India

A “drachma” of the Western Satraps from India, with the king’s profile on the front and a river, three hills, a crescent moon and the sun on the back, surrounded by text in Brahmi script.

The Western Satraps came to power in western and central India, after the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, the Indo-Scythians and the Indo-Greek Kingdom. They may have been descended from the Indo-Scythians, but there is no certainty about this. It was only after most of the Hellenistic kingdoms had ceased to exist that the empire came to occupy an influential position, which, in addition to the geographical distance, explains the difference in imagery.

The Western style of the satraps’ coins is different from the other coins in the collection. The portrait of the ruler on the front face is reminiscent of the portraits in the coins of the Hellenistic kings, but with a distinct style of its own. The stylised landscape on the back is completely different from any back face found on Greek coins, as is the Brahmi script surrounding the landscape. The Indo-Greek Kingdom, which preceded the Western Satraps and was founded after the Greco-Bactrian invasions, was partly responsible for the original mixing of the styles. Greek culture and language were mixed with the regions’ own languages and cultures. The Western Satraps, who came to power after these Indo-Greek kings, followed the imagery of their predecessors and took it in their own direction. This was a way of connecting with the predecessors, in the same way that the successors of Alexander the Great adopted the coin styles he had created. This coin shows signs of Greek influence, but it was probably not an attempt to establish contact with the existing Greek kings; only a few of them were left at this time and most of them were in fact already under Roman rule.