Communities, Work and Urban Life in the Indo-Greek Kingdoms

From the second century BCE to the early first century CE, Indo-Greek kings governed changing territories in the northwestern subcontinent. Towns linked courts and markets with farming districts, while craft skills supplied vessels, textiles, tools and money. At Barikot in Swat and Sirkap near Taxila, settlement remains and everyday objects reveal parts of this working landscape.

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Towns and their surroundings

Sirkap, near Taxila, was founded around the middle of the second century BCE. Its main avenue and crossing streets organised movement through blocks of buildings. The settlement continued under Saka and Parthian rulers, whose additions form much of the surviving architecture. Its early plan connected neighbourhoods with an important regional centre.

Barikot occupied ground below a rocky acropolis in the fertile Swat valley. A later-second-century BCE circuit with projecting towers protected the town. Stone, clay and labour went into the walls, while gates provided controlled access. The settlement’s position linked its security with the agricultural resources of the valley and routes towards the Gandharan plains.

Small objects reveal different kinds of skill. Carved stone palettes from the Taxila region combined Greek mythological scenes with regional details of clothing and ornament. Pottery fragments carrying letters show writing on portable possessions as well as on official monuments. These objects moved through the spaces in which people stored goods, worked and exchanged them.

Coinage, work and exchange

Indo-Greek money followed more than one weight standard and could carry two languages. On many issues, Greek appeared on one face and Prakrit in Kharoshthi script on the other. The inscriptions named the same king through different written traditions. Choosing metal, weight, shape and denomination helped connect a royal issue with the payments for which it was intended.

Minting required workers to prepare metal blanks and engrave dies carrying images and lettering. A blank was placed between dies and struck so that the designs appeared on both faces. Repeated use of a die produced a recognisable issue. Marks and control symbols helped distinguish parts of this production, although their interpretation varies between coin series.

Coins travelled beyond a single town, and neighbouring rulers adopted some Indo-Greek monetary conventions. Exchange also connected the region with Bactria and India. Around 126 BCE, the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian reported southwestern Chinese cloth and bamboo in Bactrian markets, which merchants said had arrived through India. The account places these northwestern routes within wider movements of goods.

Households, objects and food

Barikot’s Indo-Greek phases include portable supports for cooking pots, known as lasana. These held a vessel above heat and left space beneath for fuel and air. Loom weights reveal another task: keeping vertical threads taut while a weaver passed a cross-thread through them to make cloth. Such tools connect craft knowledge with work carried out within the settlement.

The surrounding valley supplied the settlement with crops. Research on Barikot’s pre-Kushan sequence has recovered cereals and pulses, including barley, wheat, rice and lentils. Managing water and growing crops in different seasons helped sustain production in this well-watered mountain setting. Harvesting, cleaning, storing and preparing food linked urban life with work in the fields.

Barley and wheat were suited to the cooler part of the year, while rice required warmth and a reliable supply of water. Combining crops with different growing seasons could spread cultivation across the agricultural year. The investment in channels and the timing of work connected field management with the supplies stored and consumed in the town.

Religious gifts and shared practices

Buddhist worship had a lasting place in Swat. A stupa was a monument associated with relics, remains venerated as connected with the Buddha or other revered figures. At Barikot, excavators have identified a second-century BCE sacred phase beneath later additions. Continued rebuilding made the sanctuary part of the town’s changing religious landscape.

Around 110 BCE, Heliodorus, an envoy from Antialcidas to King Bhagabhadra, dedicated a pillar to Vāsudeva at Vidisha. The text calls him a devotee and identifies his home as Taxila. Theodotos, a meridarch or regional official in Swat, recorded the establishment of Buddha relics for the benefit of many people. Public office and individual religious giving met in both records.

For the wider setting, see Indo-Greek Kingdoms.