Milinda-panha
("Questions of Milinda) is a Buddhist text dealing with a series of dialogues
between King Menander, the most famous Indo-Greek ruler and a Buddhist philosopher
called Nagasena. It is written in Pali.
Menander ruled
from c 150 to 135 BC one of the Indo-Greek kingdoms that had arisen in the
north-west India as a consequence of the Alexander’s conquests two centuries
earlier. His dominion extended from Kabul in the north to Yamuna in the south.
At the end of
Milinda-panha, Nagasena was able to convince Menander the persuasiveness of the
Buddha's teachings and the king became a Buddhist monk and abdicated the throne
in his son’s favour.
Menander was immensely
popular. This can be gauged from the legend that has it that after his death, there
was a scramble among the cities of north-west for his ashes on which monuments could
be built.
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