Gondophernes: The Pahlava Ruler

                                                        Takht-i-Bahi monastery / Image Credit

Gondophernes was the most prominent and famous of the Pahlava or Parthian rulers who ruled north-western part of India towards the end of the 1^st century BC.  He was a great patron of Indian culture which can be gauged from the numerous coins found in the northwest of India. These coins also point to the wide extent of his suzerainty that included Kandhar, Kabul and Taxila. Gondophernes was probably responsible for the defeat of Hermaeus, the last of the Greek rulers in India.

His inscription has been found at the Buddhist monastery Takht-i-Bhai (Throne of Origins) in Pakistan.

 

Christian tradition has it that India’s first brush with Christianity took place during his reign by the efforts of the Christian apostle St. Thomas who is said to have visited his empire. However, truth of the legend does not find favour with some authorities who maintain that going by Gondophernes’ date he cannot be a contemporary of St. Thomas.

Gondophernes ruled for twenty years. His successors were weak and fought among themselves. Thus came the end of the Pahlava empire.