RAS question
The Indo-Greek king who is mentioned in the Buddhist text 'Milinda Panha' is:
Correct answer: (B) Menander (Milinda).
Menander, also known as Milinda, is the Indo-Greek king identified in the Buddhist text Milindapanho.
Explanation
Menander is the Indo-Greek ruler linked with the Buddhist text Milindapanho, or Questions of Milinda. The NIOS history lesson calls him the most celebrated Indo-Greek ruler and states that he has been identified with King Milinda of that text. Milindapanho preserves the philosophical questions Milinda put to Nagasena, the Buddhist monk associated with the work; impressed by Nagasena's answers, the king accepted Buddhism. This is why Menander is not just another Indo-Greek name in post-Mauryan history, but the specific ruler tied to a Buddhist intellectual dialogue. He ruled from Sagala, identified with Sialkot.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) Demetrius is associated with an Indo-Greek advance into India and conflict with Pushyamitra Shunga, but he is not the Milinda of Milindapanho.
- (C) Antialkidas is remembered through the Heliodorus embassy to Bhagabhadra, not as the Indo-Greek king questioned by Nagasena in Milindapanho.
- (D) Eucratides was an Indo-Greek king of Bactria, whereas the Buddhist text Milindapanho identifies its royal interlocutor as Milinda, that is Menander.
Concept
This tests the post-Mauryan contact zone between Indo-Greek political history and Buddhism. RAS repeatedly asks such source-linked identifications because they connect rulers, texts and religious developments in one fact pattern.