An inscription, Takht-i-Bahi recovered from Mardan near Peshawar, indicates the rule of which of the following dynasties in north-western area of present Pakistan?

Correct — B. The Takht-i-Bahi inscription carries the name of Gondophares, the Indo-Parthian king who ruled Gandhara in the first century CE.

The site lies in the Mardan district near Peshawar, in present-day Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. That inscription is the standard epigraphic anchor for Parthian rule in the north-west, which is why SSC gives the find-spot and asks for the dynasty.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Sakas — The Sakas, or Indo-Scythians, held the north-west before the Indo-Parthians, under rulers such as Maues and Azes. Takht-i-Bahi names Gondophares, who is not one of them.
• (c)
  Indo-Greek — The Indo-Greeks are known from rulers such as Menander and from their bilingual coinage, not from this inscription.
• (d)
  Bactrian — Bactria is a region north of the Hindu Kush rather than a dynasty, and the Greeks who held it are the same line the Indo-Greek option already covers.

After the Mauryas the north-west passed through a sequence of foreign powers: Indo-Greeks, Sakas, Indo-Parthians (Pahlavas) and Kushanas.

The Indo-Parthian phase was the briefest of the four. Gondophares is its one securely attested ruler, and Takht-i-Bahi is the reason.

The site itself is a Buddhist monastery complex, on the UNESCO World Heritage List since 1980.

Key facts

• The Takht-i-Bahi inscription bears the name of Gondophares, an Indo-Parthian ruler.
• Takht-i-Bahi lies in the Mardan district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in Pakistan.
• The site is a Buddhist monastery complex inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1980.
• The Indo-Parthians ruled between the Saka and the Kushana phases in the north-west.

Common traps

• Saka and Parthian rule cover the same region, so the place name is the only discriminator the stem offers.
• Bactria is a geographical region, which is what makes option (d) read like a dynasty.

No directly related past PYQ was found.