| Gondophares | |
|---|---|
| Indo-Parthian king | |
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| Profile of Gondophares, on one of his coins, minted in Gandhara. He wears a headband, earrings, a necklace, and a cross-over jacket with round decorations. | |
| Reign | Indo-Parthian: c.20 BC - first years AD |
Gondophares I was the first king of the so-called Indo-Parthian Kingdom. He seems to have ruled from c. 20 AD. [1], and was originally likely a relative or vassal of the Apracarajas, ruling in Seistan. The date of the start of the reign of Gondophares I is firmly established at 20 AD by the rock inscription he set up at Takht-i Bahi (also known as Takht Bahi) in 46 AD.[2]
Gondophares I took over the Kabul valley and the Punjab and Sind region area from the Indo-Scythian king Azes. In reality, a number of vassal rulers seem to have switched allegiance from the Indo-Scythians to Gondophares I. His empire was vast, but was only a loose framework, which fragmented soon after his death. His capital was the Gandharan city of Taxila.[3] Taxila is located in Punjab to the west of the present Islamabad.
The name Gondophares is a latinization of Greek ΥΝΔΟΦΕΡΡΗΣ with gen. -ΟΥ, from Old Persian Vindafarna "May he find glory."[4] Indian names include 'Gondapharna', 'Guduvhara' and Pali 'Gudaphara'. Gondophares is 'Gastaphar' in Armenian.
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Chronology
On the coins of Gondophares, the royal names are Iranian, but the other legends of the coins are in Greek and Kharoṣṭhī.
"Ernst Herzfeld maintained that the dynasty of Gondophares represented the house of Suren."[4] cf. [5]
Obv: Bust of Gondophares
Rev: Winged Nike holding a diadem, and Greek legend: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ ΥΝΔΟΦΕΡΡΟΥ ("of King Gondophares, the Saviour")
The Biblical Magi "Gaspar"
The name of Gondaphares was translated in Armenian in "Gastaphar", and then in Western languages into "Gaspard". He may be the "Gaspard, King of India", who, according to apocryphal texts and eastern Christian tradition, was one of the three Biblical Magi who attended the birth of Christ. [6]
Connection with Saint Thomas and Apollonius of Tyana
The apocryphical gospel of Saint Thomas mentions one king Gudnaphar, traditionally associated with Gondophares. A.D.H. Bivar, writing in The Cambridge History of Iran, said that the reign dates of Gondophares recorded in the Takht-i Bahi inscription (20-46 or later AD) are consistent with the dates given in the Apocryphal Acts of Thomas for the Apostle's voyage to India following the Crucifixion in c.30 AD.[7] B.N. Puri, of the Department of Ancient Indian History and Archaeology, University of Lucknow, India, also identified Gondophares with the ruler said to have been converted by Saint Thomas the Apostle.[8] The same goes for the reference to an Indo-Parthian king in the accounts of the life of Apollonius of Tyana. Purii says that the dates given by Philostratus in his Life of Apollonius of Tyana for Apollonius' visit to Taxila, 43-44 AD, are within the period of the reign of Gondophares I, who also went by the Parthian name, Phraotes..[9] Saint Thomas was brought before King Gundaphar (Gondophares) at his capital, Taxila.[10] "Taxila" is the Greek form of the contemporary Pali name for the city, “Takkasila”, from the Sanskrit “Taksha-sila”. The name of the city was transformed in subsequent legends concerning Thomas, which were consolidated into the Historia Trium Regum (History of the Three Kings) by John of Hildesheim (1364-1375), into "Silla", "Egrisilla", "Grisculla", and so on,[11] the name having undergone a process of metamorphosis similar to that which transformed “Vindapharnah” (Gondophares) to “Caspar”. Hildesheim's Historia Trium Regum says: “In the third India is the kingdom of Tharsis, which at that time was ruled over by King Caspar, who offered incense to our Lord. The famous island Eyrisoulla [or Egrocilla] lies in this land: it is there that the holy apostle St Thomas is buried”.[12] "Egrisilla" appears on the globe made in Nuremberg by Martin Behaim in 1492, where it appears on the southernmost part of the peninsula of Hoch India, “High India” or “India Superior”, on the eastern side of the Sinus Magnus ("Great Gulf", the Gulf of Thailand): there Egrisilla is identified with the inscription, das lant wird genant egtisilla, (“the land called Egrisilla”). In his study of Behaim's globe, E.G. Ravenstein noted: “Egtisilla, or Eyrisculla [or Egrisilla: the letters “r” and “t” in the script on the globe look similar], is referred to in John of Hildesheim’s version of the ‘Three Kings’ as an island where St. Thomas lies buried”.[13]
Coin types
 Coin of Gondophares. |
 Coin of Gondophares. |
 Detail. |
 Gondophares on horseback, with Zeus. |
 Gondophares on horseback (missing), with Zeus and Nike standing on right hand. |
 Gondophares on horseback (missing), with Athena. |
 Head of Gondophares, with Athena. |
 King on horseback, Nike flying behind him with a wreath, with Shiva. |
 Bust of Gondophares, with winged Nike holding palm and wreath. |
 Gondophares on horseback, with symbol of Gondophares. |
 Coin of Gondophares (British Museum) |
See also
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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Gondophares. |
References
- ^ See main Indo-Parthian page for references to Robert Senior's modern chronology
- ^ A.D.H. Bivar, "The History of Eastern Iran", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol.3 (1), The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods, London, Cambridge University Press, 1983, p.197.
- ^ B.N. Puri, “The Sakas and Indo-Parthians”, in A.H. Dani, V. M. Masson, Janos Harmatta, C. E. Boaworth, History of Civilizations of Central Asia, Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 2003, Chapter 8, p.196
- ^ a b Bivar, A.D.H. (2003), "Gondophares", Encyclopaedia Iranica, 11.2, Costa Mesa: Mazda, http://www.iranica.com/articles/v11f2/v11f2021.html
- ^ Bivar, A. D. H. (1983), "The Political History of Iran under the Arsacids", in Yarshater, Ehsan, Cambridge History of Iran, 3.1, London: Cambridge UP, pp. 51
- ^ Mario Bussagli, "L'art du Gandhara", p.207
- ^ W. Wright (transl.), The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas, Leiden, Brill, 1962, p.146; cited in A.D.H. Bivar, "The History of Eastern Iran", in Ehsan Yarshater (ed.), The Cambridge History of Iran, Vol.3 (1), The Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian Periods, London, Cambridge University Press, 1983, p.197.
- ^ B.N. Puri, “The Sakas and Indo-Parthians”, in János Harmatta, B.N. Puri and G.F. Etemadi (editors), History of civilizations of Central Asia, Paris, UNESCO, Vol.II, 1994, p.196.
- ^ Puri, “The Sakas and Indo-Parthians”, p.197.
- ^ A.E. Medlycott, India and the Apostle Thomas, London, David Nutt, 1905, Chapter 1, “The Apostle Thomas and Gondophares the Indian King”
- ^ Frank Schaer, The Three Kings of Cologne, Heidelberg, Winter, 2000, Middle English Texts no.31, p.196.
- ^ Joannes of Hildesheim, The Three Kings of Cologne: An Early English Translation of the "Historia Trium Regum" together with the Latin Text, London, Trubner, 1886; repr. Elibron Classics, 2001, cap.xi, pp.227-28; translation by F.H. Mountney, The Three Kings of Cologne, Gracewing Publishing, 2003, pp.31, 47.
- ^ E.G. Ravenstein, Martin Behaim: His Life and His Globe, London, George Philip, 1908, p.95.
Further reading
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gondophares |
- A.E. Medlycott, India and the Apostle Thomas, London 1905: Chapter i: "The Apostle Thomas and Gondophares the Indian king"
- Coins of Gondophares
- Indo-Parthian coinage
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