INDO-PARTHIAN DYNASTY, rulers over a large part of northwestern India from Seistan (portions of the present-day border provinces of that name of Iran and of Afghanistan) to Sindh on the Indus river at the beginning of the 1st century C.E. They came after the Indo-Greeks and the Indo-Scythians and were, in turn, defeated by the Kushans in the second half of the 1st. century C.E. The main difficulty in studying this period is the lack of firm sources. Very few texts mention the Indo-Parthians, and inscriptions do not refer directly to them. Furthermore, archeological sites have yielded few pieces of information, some of which are controversial. Coins thus remain the main source of information for reconstructing Indo-Parthian history. Five distinct regions can be distinguished by their coin types, the chronology of which will be considered here from west to east. (See Table 1.

Seistan. Indo-Parthian issues in Seistan (Drangiana, q.v.) and in the Herat region (Areia; see HERAT ii.) are directly inspired by silver Parthian drachms, as far as types and weight standard are concerned. They depict on the obverse the bust of the king, turned to left, sometimes wearing a tiara, and on the reverse the king seated on a low chair, generally holding a bow, sometimes shown as being crowned by a Nike standing to left (see also INVESTITURE ii.). The surrounding Greek legend is shaped into a square. These are silver drachms, weighing ca. 3.7 g, with a good percentage of silver.

Gondophares (q.v.), founder of the Indo-Parthian dynasty, is depicted in left profile with a simple diadem having a frontal ornament (obverse) and being crowned by a Nike (reverse; Senior, type 210; Plate I, coin a). He was probably followed by Sases, whose issues are quite rare (five specimens are known so far). His portrait and Greek legend are very similar to those of Gondophares; but on the obverse he wears a tiara, and on the reverse he is called Gondophares; but the Greek legend ends with SAH, except for one coin on which a tiny S can be seen between A and H (Senior, type 240). Thus, the reading must be SASH /sasē/.

Sases was followed by Orthagnes, depicted with a simple tiara (Senior, type 256), and by Ubouzanes, known before as Otannes (Alram, 1983, pp. 69-74; Senior, type 259; coin f). In his Greek legend, Ubouzanes specifies he is Orthagnes’ son.

For the following rulers, from Sanabares onwards, a Pahlavi legend is added on the obverse, and the Nike crowning the king on the reverse is abandoned. Sanabares struck coins in Seistan (Senior, types 261-62) and also bronze drachms of poor style, which perhaps were issued in Iran (Senior, type 266). There is a possibility that there were two Sanabares. Sanabares I, Indo-Parthian, would have struck coins in Seistan and in Arachosia (coin h), while Sanabares II, a Parthian, issued coins in Marv (Alram, 1986, p. 260, n. 930; Chiesa, 1982; coin c). These are to be differentiated from the issues of Abdagases I, who struck coins in northern Arachosia, Gandhara, and Jammu. The depiction of Abdagases II is very similar to that of Pacores, the last Indo-Parthian king in Seistan; the Greek legend copies the well-known, stereotyped Parthian Greek legend. It also seems that Abdagases II struck gold coins, with a specific iconography and Pahlavi legends (Grenet and Bopearachchi, 1996, pp. 219-31; 1999, pp. 73-82); these were prestige issues with poor-quality engraving. Lastly, Pacores issued silver drachms very similar to those of Abdagases II, and a portrait that clearly reminds one of his own Arachosian issues. On the reverse is an imitation of the Parthian monogram (Figure 1; see, for Ecbatana/Hamadān, Senior, type 268).

Arachosia. In Arachosia, the coins issued by Indo-Parthian kings are bronze tetradrachms (9.40 g), with the bust of the king (obverse) and a Nike holding a crown (reverse). On the obverse, the legend is in Greek, on the reverse, in Kharoṣṭhī script. Arachosian coins repeat types inaugurated in this area by the Indo-Greeks. Two mints can be distinguished, one in southern Arachosia, in the Kandahār area, one in northern Arachosia, in the Begrām (q.v.) region (coin d).

In Kandahār, seven kings struck coins, often in a poor style; they are depicted on the obverse turned to left. Tetradrachms of Gondophares represent the king with a diadem and a frontal ornament, as in Seistan (Senior, type 212). He was probably followed by Sarpedones, recognizable thanks to his goatee beard (Senior, type 255; coin g). On the obverse, to the left of the king’s bust in left profile, stands a symbolic device or tamga specific to the Indo-Parthian dynasty (Plate I. Examples of the Indo-Parthian coin series.