Mind-Benders of Buddhist History
A Greek king ruled in India, debated a monk about the self — and had his ashes divided among his cities like relics
Menander I, a Greek-descended king who ruled Afghanistan and northwest India in the 2nd century BCE, is remembered in Buddhist tradition as 'Milinda,' whose recorded dialogue with the monk Nagasena became a classic text. The historian Plutarch reports that when he died, his subjects divided his remains among their cities and raised monuments over them.
How we know
Menander I (r. c.165/155–130 BCE), Indo-Greek king; the Milindapanha ('Questions of Milinda') dramatizes his dialogue with the monk Nagasena on the nature of the self. Plutarch (Precepts of Statecraft) records that at his death his ashes were divided among the cities and enshrined in monuments.
One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.