The Debate of King Milinda
edited by Bhikkhu Pesala
Buddha Dharma Education Association Inc.
Introduction
The Milinda Pa¤ha is an ancient and much venerated book
of the Buddhists, indeed regarded so highly as to be in-
cluded by the Burmese in the Pali Canon. In the Pali book it
says that the conversations between King Milinda and
Nàgasena took place five hundred years after the Pari-
nibbàna of the Buddha. Mr. T.W. Rhys Davids, the most able
translator of the Pali texts, regarded the Milinda Pa¤ha very
highly. He said, “I venture to think that the ‘Questions of
King Milinda’ is undoubtedly the masterpiece of Indian
prose; and indeed the best book of its class, from a literary
point of view, that had been produced in any country.”1
1.T.W. Rhys Davids, QKM Introduction.
The style of the Milinda Pa¤ha is very much like a
Platonic dialogue, Nàgasena playing the part of Socrates
and winning over King Milinda to the Buddhist viewpoint
by his sound reasoning and his fitting similes. The author
is not known but it is almost certain that he lived in the far
northwest of India or in the Punjab, since he mentions no
place in the interior of India south of the Ganges.
2 This is
supported by what is definitely known about King
Menander, a Bactrian king identified with Milinda.
Much more is known about King Menander. Many of
his coins have been found over a wide area of northern
India, as far west as Kabul, as far east as Mathura and as far
north as Kashmir. The portrait is sometimes of a young
man and other times that of a very old man. Plutarch says,
“Menander was a king noted for justice who enjoyed such
popularity with his subjects that upon his death, which
took place in camp, diverse cities contended for the posses-
sion of his ashes. The dispute was settled by the represent-
atives of the different cities agreeing to divide the relics,
and then erecting separate monuments to his memory”.
The recent publication of the Mir Zakah treasure
confirms the rule of Menander in Ghazni and adjoining
areas of the Kabul valley in the north (there are 521 coins of
Menander in that treasure). The discovery of an Attic
Tetradrachm of Menander sets speculation at rest; he must
have ruled over the Kabul region. In the north he occupied
Hazara and the Swat valley.
3
So Menander was one of the
2.A.K. Narain, The Indo-Greeks.
3.A.K. Narain, The Indo-Greeks.
most important of those Greek kings who continued in
Bactria, the dominion founded by Alexander the Great. He
probably reigned from about 150 to 110 B.C. (thus dating
his conversations not much more than 400 years after the
Parinibbàna of the Buddha). Strabo draws attention in
passing to the remarkable way in which the kingdom of
Bactria expanded beyond its original limits, and he
mentions incidentally that the kings chiefly responsible
were Demetrius and Menander…. But Menander left a far
deeper mark on the tradition of India than did Demetrius.
4
Menander annexed the Indus delta, the peninsula of
Surastra (Kathiavar), occupied Mathura on the Jumna,
besieged Madyamika (Nagari near Chitor) and Saketam in
southern Oudh, and threatened the capital, Pàñaliputta. But
the invasion was repulsed and Menander was forced to
return to his own country.
5 Since the Bactrians later became
Buddhists there can be little doubt that King Menander is
indeed the King Milinda referred to in the book. However,
the conversations may be just a literary device the author
used to add interest. His primary aim is to clarify Buddhist
doctrine and to refute the wrong views promulgated by
various opponents of Buddhism.
The introductory story in the Milinda Pa¤ha concern-
ing Nàgasena’s upbringing is almost identical to the story
of the young Moggaliputta Tissa, which is told in the Mahà-
vaüsa, the Ceylon Chronicles. Moggaliputta Tissa Thera
lived about a hundred years before Menander and is men-
4.Cambridge History of India, Vol. I. P.446
5.V.A. Smith, The Early History of India.
tioned twice in the text [Miln. pp 3,71] so it is probably his
story that is the older of the two. However, the Mahàvaüsa
was written much later by Mahànàma, at the beginning of
the 6th century A.D., so the story could have been bor-
rowed by Mahànàma from the Milinda Pa¤ha, which was by
then a venerable book edited by Buddhaghosa. (In the
Milinda òika, a commentary on the Milinda Pa¤ha, it is stated
that several verses of prologue and epilogue in the Milinda
Pa¤ha were composed by Buddhaghosa).
From the supposed conversation that Milinda has
with Påraõa Kassapa, Makkhali Gosala and other ascetics6
it is obvious that this introductory story was fabricated by
the author since these ascetics were contemporaries of the
Buddha. The story is based on the Sàma¤¤a Phala Sutta of
the Dãgha Nikàya. One point of difference is noteworthy: in
the Sàma¤¤a Phala Sutta,
7
Prince Ajàtasattu goes to see the
Buddha but is unable to recognise him; whereas in the
introduction to the Milinda Pa¤ha, King Milinda says of
Nàgasena, “There is no need to point him out to me”, thus
showing his great superiority to Prince Ajàtasattu.
6.Though this supposed conversation is found in the original text, it adds nothing of
substance to the dialogues, and could not have taken place, so I have left it out.
7.D. i. 50
The Rise of the Magadha Kingdom
In the Mahàparinibbàna Sutta the Buddha predicted that the
city of Pàñaliputta, which was founded shortly before his
death, would become a great city, “ânanda, among the
towns and cities that are centres of congregation and com-
merce of people of the Aryan race, this new town will be-
come the greatest city, called Pàñaliputta, a place where goods
are unpacked, sold and distributed, but it will be in danger
from flood, fire and internal dissension”.
8
The Magadha
Kingdom, of which Pàñaliputta (modern Patna) was the capi-
tal, gradually became the most powerful in all India.
In the mid 4th century B.C. a Sudra named Mahà-
padma Nanda usurped the throne of the kingdom of
Magadha and became the ruler of a kingdom stretching
from the Brahmaputra river in the east to the Beas in the
west. But beyond the Beas were several small kingdoms.
During this period, Alexander the Great conquered
Persia and crossed the Hindu Kush into Bactria (Northern
Afghanistan). It took him two years to subdue these inhos-
pitable regions, but in so doing he founded several cities
penetrating as far north as Samarkand and Leninabad (in
the USSR). Another city has been identified at Charikar
(north of Kabul). Hearing about the river Indus he re-
crossed the Hindu Kush in 327 B.C. and pushed eastwards
to Taxila (Takkasãla), but when he reached the Jhelum river
he encountered the Paurava rajah, who had war elephants.
Even the veterans of Macadonia were unable to continue
8.D. ii. 87, 88.
against such opposition, so Alexander was forced to retreat
down the Indus river and thence back through Persia,
where he died at Babylon in 323 B.C. Nevertheless, he had
left behind him the foundations of the Bactrian kingdom
and had surveyed the Jhelum and Indus rivers.
After Alexander’s death, Chandragupta, the founder
of the Mauryan dynasty, was able to drive away the Greek
garrisons from the Indus valley. In 321 B.C. he defeated
Nanda and became the ruler of the Magadha kingdom
from the capital at Pàñaliputta. Alexander’s successor,
Seleukos I Nikator, led an expedition against the Indians in
311 B.C. hoping to regain the Punjab. However, he was up
against the might of Chandragupta. So, by 304 B.C.,
Seleukos was glad to conclude a treaty with him, giving his
daughter in marriage and ceding large areas of what is now
Baluchistan and Afghanistan in exchange for 500 war
elephants. Seleukos sent his ambassador, Magasthenes, to
Pàñaliputta and from what remains of his writings we
know something about the size of the army and the
strength of the fortifications there. Chandragupta ruled for
24 years and his son Bindusàra, about whom we know very
little, ruled for 28 years until his death in 269 B.C.
At the time of Bindusàra’s death his eldest son was the
viceroy at Takkasãla and his younger son, Asoka, was the
viceroy at Ujjeni in the south. Asoka fought with his brother
for the right to ascend to the throne, and when his
brotherwas killed in battle, Asoka became the ruler of a vast
empire from Bengal to Afghanistan. However, he was still
not satisfied and it was only in the ninth year of his reign,
after the bloody conquest of the Kaliïga kingdom (Orissa)
that he gave up warfare and became a devoted follower of
Buddhism. Emperor Asoka sent missions of monks to the
border areas of his great empire. Asokan inscriptions have
been found in the Kabul valley written in Greek and Ara-
maic, and elsewhere his inscriptions say that he had made
Dhamma conquests in Egypt, Syria, Macedonia, Greece,
Cyprus, Bactria, Kashmir, Gandhàra, etc. The Mahàvaüsa
says that missionaries were sent to Kashmir, Gandhàra,
Bactria, the Himalayas, Sindh (Gujarat), and inscriptions on
relic caskets found in ståpas at Sanchi record the success of
those missions to the Himalayas. Unfortunately, the other
ståpa records have been vandalised, but we can be sure that
the missions to Kashmir and Gandhàra were successful
since even in the Buddha’s time Takkasãla was a renowned
centre of learning. The Mahàvaüsa also records that at the
consecration of the Great Ståpa in 157B.C. monks came
from Alasanda (Charika) in Yona (Bactria).
The Rise of the Bactrian Kingdom
After the death of Asoka in 227 B.C. the Mauryan empire
began to disintegrate. The empire founded by Seleukos had
already revolted in 250 B.C. under its governor, Diodotus I
and it continued to grow under his successors, Diodotus II
and Euthydemus. At the beginning of the 2nd century B.C.
the Greek rulers of the new kingdom of Bactria crossed the
Hindu Kush and began to invade India from the northwest.
Of the Greek kings who ruled to the south of the Kush,
Apollodotus would seem to be the first. He is twice men-
tioned in association with Menander. Their rule extended
on the south west to Ariana (southern Afghanistan) and in
the south to the Indus valley.
As mentioned above, Menander must have ruled
over the Kabul and Swat valleys and at some time he
annexed the Indus valley too. Sàgala, the city mentioned in
the Milinda Pa¤ha as the place where the dialogues took
place, was the ancient city of the Madras who came to the
region in about the 6th century B.C. It is now Sialkot,
between the Chenab and Ravi rivers, near the border of
Kashmir. At Miln. page 83 (see Question 5, Chapter Seven)
it is mentioned that Kashmir is 12 yojanas (84 miles) distant
and that Milinda’s birthplace on the island of Alasanda is
200 yojanas away. There are many cities founded by
Alexander during his conquests, several of which might
have been the birthplace of Menander. The city founded at
Charikar has been suggested by A.K. Narain, but it is rather
less than 200 yojanas (1,400 miles) at the usual reckoning.
Could it perhaps be the Alexandra located at Leninabad or
one of the Alexandras further West?
However, from the available evidence we can postu-
late that Menander was born in Bactria, but brought up in
Ariana (the Kabul valley) and in the early years of his rule
expanded his father’s kingdom to the Indus valley and
beyond, perhaps later establishing his capital at Sàgala.
Unlike Bactria, which was predominantly influenced by
Greek culture, these new areas were already Buddhist.
Menander, then, would have been educated in the Greek
traditions but would have had direct contact with Bud-
dhism and no doubt often met monks living in his king-
dom. Nevertheless, it does seem rather improbable that his
knowledge of doctrine would have been sufficient to
engage in the dialogues as recorded in the Milinda Pa¤ha
since Milinda is shown to have a substantial knowledge of
the texts. My opinion is that the author had at most a brief
acquaintance with Menander, most probably basing his
work on an oral tradition of the dialogues and using his
own deep knowledge of the texts to extend the dialogues
into the longer work that we have now. He might have
used the dialogues as a device to add interest to his treatise
and to please the Greek king by making him one of the cen-
tral characters.
This hypothesis gains some support from the
existence of Chinese translations that consist of only the
first three divisions. They are almost identical with the Pali
as to the questions asked but differ in the introductory
story, which in neither case looks very authentic.
Comparison with the Chinese Text
As V. Trenchner pointed out when he transliterated the Pali
text in the 1860’s, we can be sure that the original Milinda
Pa¤ha was in Sanskrit because it begins with the words
“Taü yathà nusuyatà” (thus has it been handed down)
rather than the Pali formula “Evam me sutam” (thus have I
heard). This is confirmed by the presence of Chinese
translations of the text which, although they obviously
come from the same root source, show a number of notable
differences.9
9.For a detailed and thorough comparison, see Milinda Panha and Nàgasenabhikshusåtra
(AComparative Study) Bhikkhu Thich Mihn Chau.
1.The Chinese versions correspond to the first three
divisions of the Pali version, suggesting that the other
four divisions (Dilemmas, A Question solved by
Inference, Ascetic Practices, and the Similes) were
later accretions.
2.The Chinese work, the Nàgasena-bhikshusåtra takes the
name of the monk. The Pali work, the Milinda Pa¤ha,
the name of the king.
3.The Pali work has twelve extra questions.
4.The stories of the former lives of Nàgasena and Milinda
are different.
5.There is no mention of the Abhidhamma in the Chinese.
It is frequently mentioned in the Pali.
6.On the very well known classification of the
Bodhipakkhiya Dhammas the Chinese translator goes
astray on several terms, indicating that he was not
familiar with the Pali texts.
7.The Pali says that animals have reasoning but not
wisdom; the Chinese says they have wisdom but their
hearts are different.
Although there are many minor differences between the
two texts, the close correlation between the similes used to
illustrate the terms defined and the order of the questions,
leaves us with no doubt that they are both translations of an
older work (probably in Sanskrit). However, we should be
cautious when drawing conclusions as to which is the more
authentic. Bhikkhu Thich Mihn Chau, in his efforts to prove
the greater antiquity of the original on which the Chinese
translation is based, dates it soon after the demise of the
Buddha citing the absence of classification of the texts into
Vinaya, Sutta, Abhidhamma, and Nikàyas, which were only
well defined at the Third Council. Yet, Menander was not
even born until 100 years after this council. Clearly, the
‘original’ is not earlier than the 1st century B.C. and the
long gap before the translations appeared, in about
400A.D., was ample time for numerous accretions and
amendments, or omissions and lacunas to occur.
For the reasons already stated above and because the
conversations in the Milinda Pa¤ha were said to have taken
place about 500 years after the Buddha’s death, whereas
Menander lived at least a hundred years earlier than that, it
seems most likely that the Milinda Pa¤ha was composed
some time after Menander’s death, perhaps being based on
an oral tradition of actual conversations that did take place
between Menander and a monk or several monks.
Menander’s successors, Queen Agathocleia and
Strato I Soter, continued to reign for at least 40 years after
his death, but their lives saw the emergence of a new
dynasty in western India, that of the Sakas (Scythians) and
Yueh-Chih from central Asia, and the Greek Bactrian era
came to an end.
The Arrangement of the Pali Book
The epilogue says that the book is divided into 6 divisions
and 22 chapters containing 262 questions, 42 of which have
not been handed down making 304 in all, but it is difficult
to see how this is reckoned. There are numerous discrepan-
cies between the different texts available, which is to be ex-
pected in such an old work. Now only 237 questions
remain.
To make cross-reference easier I have followed the
same sequence as the Pali text in numbering the questions
and chapters, except that I have condensed the last seven
chapters into chapter eighteen.
In this edition of the Milinda Pa¤ha, although I have
followed the arrangement of the Pali text, I have left out
large numbers of similes and condensed long, though often
very eloquent passages, (without, I hope, spoiling the
beauty of the original work) in order to make the book rea-
sonably concise and thus make it more appealing to the
busy western reader. It is an abridgement, not a translation,
therefore here and there I have combined separate para-
graphs into one for the sake of brevity, but I have endeav-
oured to be faithful to the intention of the original author,
which was the clarification of the Buddha’s teaching and
the elucidation of some common misconceptions that one
may fall into.
The references in the footnotes are to page numbers of
the Pali texts of the Pali Text Society. In the corresponding
translations these page numbers are given in square brack-
ets at the top of each left-hand page or, in the case of Vinaya
and Jàtaka books, in the body of the text.
To help those who would like to know the Pali word
from which its translation derives (which is sometimes
different to that used by Rhys Davids or Miss Horner) I
have included Pali words in the index alongside the
English reference.
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