The General's Collection Ancient coins, stamps and first day covers: King Godophares I , the Indo-Parthian ruler of Northern India, the Indian Biblical connect ? and Coins

During the time of the Saka or the Indo-Scythians, in Northwest India, there was an Indo-Parthian (Persian) kingdom which ruled from 19 BC to around 225 AD. The kingdom was founded by Gondopharid dynasty, and they ruled an area stretching from Eastern Iran, parts of Afghanistan and the northwest regions of the Indian Subcontinent, comprising of Gandhara, Sindh and western Punjab.

Coin of Gondophares

Map showing the Indo-Parthian kingdom.

The founder of the dynasty, Gondophares I, (who ruled from 19 AD to 47 AD) belonged to the royal house of Suren, the highest of the five premier families of the Arsacid (Parthian) empire in Iran. Around 19-20 AD, king Gondophares I defeated the Sakas and captured much of their territories, all the way till Mathura. The empire had its capital at Taxila, where a number of Parthian monuments have been found.

Ruins of a Zoroastrian fire temple of the Indo-Parthians at Jandial

The famous UNESCO World Heritage Buddhist monastery complex of ''Takht-i-Bahi'' in the Mardan region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was first a Zoroastrian complex which, after the arrival of Buddhism, was converted to a monastery in the 1st century BC. Gondophares as a king, was established by 20 AD as is given in the rock inscription he set up there.

Takht I Bahi, literally meaning ''spring or well on a high surface''. The spring of that period still exists on the western hill and is used by the locals. The sanctuary and nearby village was named after these wells. They are scattered over 32.9 hectares. The site was excavated by Dr D.B Spooner and Mr Hargreaves in 1907-09 and 1910-11 respectively. The remains consist of main stupa, votive stupas, court, lofty chapels, monastic quadrangle, meditation cells, covered passages and other buildings. They are stone built laid in lime and mud mortar

What is interesting about King Gondophares is his possible Biblical connection with the birth of Jesus Christ and the visit of St Thomas, the Apostle to India.

The third century AD Aramaic text from Syria, ''The Apocryphal Acts of Thomas'', mentions one King ''Gudnaphar'', in whose court St Thomas arrived. Experts and historians believe that ''Gondophares'' is the Greek version of ''Gudnaphar'' which was translated as ''Gastaphar'' in the Armenian language and ''Casper'' in Western language.

In 2:1 (first verse of the second chapter) of the Gospel of Mathew in the New Testament describes the birth of Jesus Christ and mentions the ''magi'' that came from the east. Popularly known as the ''three wise men''. These wise men have been described in a Greek manuscript probably composed in Alexandria around 500 AD as Melchior, a Persian King and scholar, Balthazar, a Babylonian scholar or King of Arabia and Gaspar (also called ''Çaspar'' or ''Jaspar'') from India. While we are not absolutely sure whether ''Caspar'' or ''Gastaphar'' ever did visit Bethlehem, we do know of Gondophares was known and referred to as Gastaphar or Caspar.

The three magi (Balthasar, Caspar, Melchior). The Hortus Deliciarum, made at the Hohenburg Abbey, France 1185 AD by Herrad of Landsberg

Further, it is interesting to note, that in medieval Christian texts, like ''Historia Trium Regum'' (History of the Three Kings) by John of Hildesheim (1364-1375), the name of ''King Caspar's kingdom'' has been mentioned as ''Egrisilla". Egrissilla has been referred to on a globe made in Nuremberg by German Cartographer Martin Behaim in 1492. It is believed that ''Egrisilla'' could be a corruption of the word ''Takshashilla'' or ''Taxila'', the capital of Gondophares.

St Thomas's travels in India are found in ''The Apocryphal Acts of St Thomas'', where he travelled to north India, to the court of King Gondophares, then down the Indus River from his capital Taxila to the island of Socotra (modern day Yemen), from where he left for south India, landing at the port of Muzris in Kerala, along the Malabar coast in 52 AD and so spread Christianity in India.

Gondophares receives a letter from St Thomas

Saint Thomas the Apostle, Diego Velazquez 1619

He was martyred in Mylapore, near Madras in AD 72. In AD 232, the greater portion of relics of the Apostle Thomas are said to have been sent to the city of Edessa, Mesopotamia.

The tomb of St Thomas the Apostle, Basilica, Chennai

For centuries, the story of St Thomas in the court of Gondophares was dismissed as a myth. However, since 1834, with the emergence of numismatic evidence which shows that there was indeed a King Gondophares and there is evidence (in the form of coins) to show he was a contemporary of St Thomas, from the legends.

The accounts of a Greek philosopher, Apollonius of Tyana, who visited Gondophares court in 44 AD (four years after St Thomas in 40 AD), have led experts to believe that there was active cultural exchange between Taxila and the western world. Apollonius writes of a Greek-style city and that the king spoke fluent Greek.

Coins of Gondophares I.