Tushaspha

Tushaspha (Brahmi: Tuṣāspa) was a "Yavanaraja" (Greek King or Governor) for Emperor Ashoka, in the area of Girnar, near Junagadh, in Gujarat, India.[1] He is only know from the Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman, in which the Western Satrap king Rudradaman, writing circa 150 CE, mentions his role in the construction of a local dam, in which he added a canal during the reign of Ashoka.[1] The part of the inscription mentioning him reads:

"(L.8)……… (The dam was) ordered to be made by the Vaishya Pushyagupta, the provincial governor of the Maurya king Chandragupta; adorned with conduits for Ashoka the Maurya by the Yavana king Tushaspha while governing; and by the conduit ordered to be made by him, constructed in a manner worthy of a king (and) seen in that breach, the extensive dam…………..."

— Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman[2][3]

Girnar
Location of Girnar in India.
Tushaspha is mentioned in Junagadh rock inscription of Rudradaman (150 CE).

According to some authors, the name Tushuspha seems to be Persian rather than Greek.[1] Other authors however, consider that he was Greco-Bactrian, given his qualification as a "Yavana", the usual name for Greeks in the east.[4]

Ashoka is known to have mentioned the presence of "Yavanas" in his kingdom in several of his Edicts of Ashoka:

"Here in the king's domain among the Greeks, the Kambojas, the Nabhakas, the Nabhapamkits, the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Palidas, everywhere people are following Beloved-Servant-of-the-Gods's instructions in Dhamma".

— Rock Edict Nb13 (Translated by S. Dhammika)

References
  1. A History of India, Hermann Kulke, Dietmar Rothermund, Routledge, 2016 p.154
  2. Epigraphia Indica, Vol. VIII. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, 1905-6, 45-49
  3. "Junagadh Rock Inscription of Rudradaman", Project South Asia.Archived 23 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Ashoka: The Search for India's Lost Emperor, Charles Allen, Hachette UK, 2012 p.129


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