The Bharhut Yavana

Yavana means as much as Greek or could even refer to a foreigner in ancient Indian literature. The word may have a Persian origin and traveled with Cyrus the Great to the Northwestern provinces of India. After the eastern conquests of Alexander the Great, the name Yavana was used more specifically for the Indo-Greeks after approximately 175 BC. 

The Bharhut Yavana refers to the relief of a Greek warrior on a Vedika pillar, discovered near the Stupa of Bharhut in Central India. His role was to guard the entrance to a temple. It is made of reddish-brown sandstone and dated to c. 100-80 BC.

The characteristics of the Yavana warrior are his short curly hair and hair band (the Indians wore turban), his tunic, and boots. His hair band is well-known from coins minted for King Menander. The sheath of his broadsword is decorated with symbols of Buddhism such as a srivasta, also known in Hinduism, and a nandipada, the symbol of a bull’s hoof. The inscription at the top of the panel is in Brahmi script and says "Pillar-gift of the lay brother Mahila." Who this Mahila is remains a mystery.

[Picture from Wikipedia]

Some sources claim that the Bharhut warrior could represent King Menander of Bactria who expanded his kingdom to the Punjab as far as Pataliputra. As a great Indo-Greek King, he ruled from 155 until 130 BC.

The Bharhut Yavana is not unique. The Stupa of Sanchi, commissioned by Asoka the Great in the 3^rd century BC, displays another 18 of these Greek worshipers. They wear very recognizable Greek tunics, capes, and sandals. Also, they play Greek musical instruments like the aulos (double flute) and the carnyx (a Roman brass horn shaped as a capital G). Here too, the men have short curly hair and many wear a hair band as mentioned above. 

[Picture from Wikipedia]

Even in his wildest dreams, Alexander could not have expected this evolution and presence of Greek art for centuries after his death at the other end of his empire.

Did Alexander visit Girsu, Iraq?

The ancient site of Girsu is situated some 25 kilometers west of Lagash in Southern Mesopotamia. Today the Iraqi town is called Tello. 

The only time I came across the name of Girsu was at the Louvre-Lens Museum which proudly displayed the diorite statue of Gudea, Prince of Lagash dated from 2120 BC. 

The Sumerian city currently excavated by archaeologists of the British Museum has yielded a temple from the days of Gudea. The site was abandoned around 1750 BC but tradition still linked the temple to Ningirsu, an ancient Mesopotamian god. It may well be that Alexander was told that Ningirsu was the equivalent of Heracles. Based on his own conviction to be the son of Zeus, that would make him Heracles’ brother. The site would thus honor Zeus and two divine sons, Heracles and Alexander. This speculation would fit the cryptic Greek inscriptions found at Girsu. The text was written in Aramaic and Greek and stated “adad-nadin-ahhe”, meaning “giver of the two brothers”. 

In that context, Alexander could have commissioned the construction of a Greek temple on the same spot where the temple to Ningirsu stood as he intended to honor the ancient gods and his own divine status. 

As he returned to Babylon in 323 BC after his campaign in India, it is not impossible that the king stopped at the city of Girsu which lies only 130 kilometers southeast of Babylon. This theory is confirmed by the discovery on the site of a silver drachm minted around 330 BC and probably left by one of his Macedonians. 

The excavation site yielded other offerings such as terracotta figurines of soldiers and horsemen closely resembling the Companion Cavalry, Alexander’s bodyguard. This would imply that the gifts were left by those close to Alexander or by Alexander himself. 

There may be a lot of speculation involved in the finds at Girsu but if they are confirmed, the construction of this sanctuary would be one of Alexander’s final acts. 

[The Temple of Girsu from ArchaeologyWiki]

The archaeological site of Girsu was first excavated in the 19^th century by the French, who noticed that Greek artifacts were mixed with Sumerian elements. The excavations led by Dr Sebastian Rey in 2022 unearthed walls and records of a huge palace as well as the sanctuary that held the Greek temple. This temple is thought to have been used originally for feasts, animal sacrifices, and processions in honor of the god Ningirsu.

A handful of Alexander coins from Chania

Chania on Crete’s northwestern coast is best known for its beaches and hotels that attract today’s tourists. Its history, however, goes back to the 14^th century BC and is centered on the ongoing excavations of the Minoan Palace of Kydonia which was destroyed by an earthquake one century later. 

[Picture of the hoard,  Greek Reporter,
Credit: Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania],

The Old Town of Chania proper has yielded a cache of 37 rare coins, including eleven gold staters of Alexander. The hoard together with two coins of Kydonia, was hidden in a space behind the wall of the acropolis of Kydonia probably by a mercenary between 300 and 280 BC. That is quite a find considering one gold stater equaled a mercenary month's salary. 

It has been established that the coins were mostly minted after Alexander’s death in the name of Philip Arrhidaeus, Seleucos or Lysimachos in different locations such as Amphipolis, Abydos, Lampsacus, etc. 

[Picture of the two-drachms of Cyrene, Greek Reporter,

Credit: Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania]

The hoard also included 15 silver staters minted in Olympia during the Olympic Games at some time in the 4^th century BC. Also one Corinthian stater of the Palace of Acarnania, a colony on the Ionian Sea; and one stater of Praisos (on the peninsula of Sitia at the eastern end of Crete). Further one two-drachms of Cyrene (North Africa), two drachms of Phaistos (62 km south of Heracleion), one drachma of Hyrtakina (in the northwest of Crete), and two pseudo-hemi-drachms of the Aegina type found in Kydonia. Last but not least, there are two early versions from Aegina showing the sea and land turtles.