X-Nico

unusual facts about Bactrian


Nava Vihara

Van Bladel (p.68) has pointed out that this version of the name can be traced to the pronunciation in the Bactrian language.


Agathocles of Bactria

Agathocles issued a series of "pedigree" dynastic coins, probably with the intent to advertise his lineage and legitimize his rule, linking him to Alexander the Great, a king Antiochus Nikator (Greek: "Νικάτωρ" "Victorious", probably intended is Antiochus III), the founder of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom Diodotus and his son Diodotus II, Euthydemus, Pantaleon, and Demetrius.

Alfred Charles Auguste Foucher

New archeological discoveries in Central Asia however (such as the Hellenistic city of Ai-Khanoum and the excavation of Sirkap in modern Pakistan), have been pointing to rich Greco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek civilizations in these areas, reviving the Hellenistic thesis.

Antiochus Nikator

The later Bactrian king Agathocles honoured earlier rulers of Bactria on commemorative coins.

Australian feral camel

(Other feral dromedary populations existed in the 20th century in Doñana National Park in Spain, and in the southwestern United States, while a small population of wild Bactrian camels still exists in the Gobi Desert.) Live camels are exported to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Brunei and Malaysia, where disease-free wild camels are prized as a delicacy.

Bactrian language

Of eight known manuscript fragments in Greco-Bactrian script, one is from Lou-lan and seven from Toyoq, where they were discovered by the second and third Turpan expeditions under Albert von Le Coq.

Diodotus I

Diodotus Soter appears also on coins struck in his memory by the later Graeco-Bactrian kings Agathocles and Antimachus.

Euthydemus

Euthydemus II, (2nd century BC) a ruler of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

Euthydemus I, (3rd century BC) a ruler of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom

Ghōr Province

The name "Ghor" is a cognate to Avestan gairi-, Sanskrit giri- and Middle Persian gar, in modern Persian koh-, Sogdian gor-/gur-, in later developed Bactrian language as g´wrao- (also paravata), meaning "mountain", in modern Pashto as ghar-, in Pamir languages as gar- and ghalcca- ("mountain").

Gujrat District

It remained under the Mauryas until shortly after the death of Asoka in 231, and about forty years later came under the sway of Demetrius the Graeco-Bactrian.

Pashtun tribal structure

Plārina is related to the Bactrian impression of Plār, which derives from Old Iranian piðar (in Bactrian and Pashto, Old Iranian /ð/ usually yields /l/), and is related to Sanskrit pidar and English "father".

Rawalpindi District

The invasion of Demetrius in 195 B.C. brought the Punjab under the Graeco-Bactrian kings.

Timeline of Indo-Greek kingdoms

The descendants of the Greco-Bactrian king Euthydemus invaded northern India around 180 BC as far as the Punjab.


see also