Coins of King Gondophares in the British Museum
Coins bearing the name of a king Gondophares in Greek and in an Indian script. They show that a ruler of the name borne by the king in the Acts of Thomas reigned in the north-west of the Indian subcontinent.
See the object at archive.org ↗The catalogue’s introduction on Gondophares, his date and where his coins were found, pp. xliii–xlv (Internet Archive) ↗
The coins carry a Greek legend with the king’s titles and name and, on the other side, a legend in an Indian script, which the catalogue transliterates Maharaja rajadiraja tradata devatrata Gudapharasa.
Percy Gardner, who catalogued them for the British Museum, argued from one silver coin of Parthian type that it was struck not later than the middle of the first century AD, and that this period would suit the king’s other coins. He reports that Gondophares’s coins were found in plenty at Begram and his small silver coins in the Punjab, and concludes that the kings of this group ruled an extensive dominion. He notes that the name occurs in the legends of St Thomas. An inscription from Takht-i-Bahi had been read as dated in the king’s twenty-sixth year; Gardner treats the reading as doubtful and says that, if it is right, Gondophares reigned in the neighbourhood of Peshawar. The coins show that the king of the Acts of Thomas bears the name of a real ruler. They say nothing about Thomas. See the Apostle Thomas and the Christians of India.
Cited in
- AD 52, traditional date