The Indo-Greek Kingdom covered various parts of the northwest and northern Indian subcontinent from 180 BC to around AD 10, and was ruled by a succession of more than thirty Hellenic and Hellenistic kings, often in conflict with each other. The kingdom was founded when the Greco-Bactrian king Demetrius invaded India in 180 BC, ultimately creating an entity which seceded from the powerful Greco-Bactrian Kingdom centred in Bactria (today's northern Afghanistan). Since the term "Indo-Greek Kingdom" loosely describes a number of various dynastic polities, it had numerous capitals, but the city of Taxila in northern Pakistan was probably among the earliest seats of local Hellenic rulers, though cities like Pushkalavati and Sagala (apparently the largest of such residences) would house a number of dynasties in their times. Based on Ptolemy's Geographia and the nomenclature of later kings, a certain Theophila in the south was also probably a satrapal or royal seat at some point.

Apollodotus was one of the generals of Demetrius I of Bactria, the Greco-Bactrian king who invaded north-western India around 180 BC. He was probably a member of the royal house, and may have been a brother of Demetrius. Apollodotus was a contemporary of Menander I, although it seems the reign of Apollodotus preceded that of Menander, who was the general in charge of the eastern territories during his reign. The usurper Eucratides probably killed Apollodotus when he invaded the western territories of the Indo-Greeks around 160 BC. Eventually Menander managed to repel Eucratides beyond the Hindu-Kush. He took the title of King, and alone ruled nearly all the north-western area of the Indian sub-continent.

Kujula Kadphises, who reigned AD 30 - AD 80, was a Kushan prince who united the Yuezhi confederation during the 1st century AD, and became the first Kushan emperor. According to the Rabatak inscription, he was the grandfather of the great Kushan king Kanishka I.

Vima Takto was known as "The Nameless King", since his coins only showed the legend "The King of Kings, Great Saviour", until the discovery of the Rabatak inscription helped connect his name with the title on the coins. Vima Takto's empire covered north-western India and Bactria towards China, where Kushan presence had been asserted in the Tarim Basin. Under his reign, embassies were also sent to the Chinese court.

Vima Kadphises was a Kushan emperor from around AD 100 - AD 127. As detailed by the Rabatak inscription, he was the son of Vima Takto and the father of Kanishka. Vima Kadphises added to the Kushan territory by his conquests in Afghanistan and north-west India. He was the first to introduce gold coinage in India, in addition to the existing copper and silver coinage. Most of the gold seems to have been obtained through trade with the Roman Empire.

Kanishka I was a king of the Kushan Empire in South Asia, ruling an empire extending from Northern India to Central Asia in the 2nd century AD, famous for his military, political, and spiritual achievements. His capital was at Balkh (Bactra) in northern Afghanistan, with regional capitals at the location of the modern city of Peshawar in Pakistan, Mathura and Saketa in India.

Huvishka I was a Kushan emperor from the death of Kanishka (assumed on the best evidence available to be in AD 140) until the succession of Vasudeva I about forty years later. His rule was a period of retrenchment and consolidation for the Empire. In particular he devoted time and effort early in his reign to the exertion of greater control over the city of Mathura, which represented the southernmost extent of the Empire and, like much of India/Pakistan, had been ruled via a series of subordinate rulers. These rulers, the ksatraps, maintained a certain amount of autonomy up under Kanishka, but they vanish from records in Huvishka's reign, while Huvishka patronised both Buddhist and Brahmin institutions in the town.