Indian Antiquary Vol 37

SR No.: 032529
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 454
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 53

FEBRUARY, 1908.)
SOYTHIAN PERIOD OF INDIAN HISTORY.
47
dates are Brahmanical records. May it not be that the Buddhists of the earlier centuries of the Christian era used solar months in the reckonings, while the Brāhmaṇs used the lunar month, as their religious ceremonies and festivals are always connected with Tithis and Paksas. Dr. Kielhorn holds that in the majority of Saks dates with solar months the Tithis and Palsas are also quoted. But this may have been the effect of the long residence of the era in Southern India where the solar reckoning, notwithstanding the nominal use of solar months, is of little practical importance" (I. A., Vol. XXV, p. 270). It may be that the use of the lunar month dates in Saka era is the result of its long residence in Southern India and that the use of the solar month names is the result of its northern and civil origin, The Saks era is undoubtedly of civil origin and during its earlier portion the omission of lunar months, Paksae and Tiths, in it does not seem irregular. In any way it can hardly be maintained now that the wording of the dates of Kanişka, Huvişka and Vasudeva are radically opposed to the wording of the Saka dates."
Dr. Fleet finds a confirmation of his theory in the Takht-i-Bahai inscription of Gondophernes which is dated in the year 103 and in the 26th year of the reign of Goodophernes, . The coins of Gondophernes indicate, according to Canningham, that he must be placed later than those of the dynasties of Vonones and Azaa and earlier than those of Kaniska.86 The Christian legends make Gondopbernes & contemporary of the Apostle Thomas. If the date of this inscription is referred to the Mälava-Vikrama era, then only a satisfactory result is obtainable. Because in that case the accession of Gondophernee falls in the year 21 A. D. In the Christian logends the name of Gondophernes is associated with another Indian prince named Mazdai or Misdeos, and M. Sylvain Levi identifies this prince with the BAZAHO or BAZOAHO of the coins and the Väsudeva of the ingoriptions. The earliest inscription of Vasudeva is dated in the year 74, and so if this date is referred to the Vikrama era it becomes equivalent to 18 A. D., which makes bım a contemporary of Gondophernes. This result, according to Dr. Fleet, clearly shows that the dates in the Kusina inscriptions must be referred to the Mālavs- Vikrama era, because in this case only a satisfactory solution of the problem is brought about conjointly by three separate lines of evidence, the palmographic, the numismatic, and the historic. These three separate lines of evidence tend to prove that the reign of Gondophernes is to be placed in the first half of the first century A. D. Dr. Bübler placed the Takht-i-Babai inscription of Gondophernes in the fourth group of his classification of Kharosthi records," which begins with the Takht-i-Bāhāi inscription of Godopherres and is fully developed in the inscriptions of the later Kuşana kings Kanisks and Huviska." 87 But we have seen already that Dr. Bühler, thronghout his work, has taken the characters of the SuëVihār inscription as representing the characters of the Kuşana inscriptions, because that inseription is the only one of which a complete and intelligible interpretation has been given. But it has also been shown that the characters of the Soë-Vihär plate cannot be taken to represent Kharoşthi characters of the Kuşans period. If we compare the Takht-i-Babai inscription with that of Manikyala or that from Zeda, then the following conclusions follow:
(1) The Ka, both in the Manikyala and Zeds inscriptions, is arobaio, while that in the fifth line of the Takht-i-Bahai inscription is later, as it shows a slight curve on the top as found also in the Panjtar and Käldarra inscriptions.
(2) The characters resemble those of the Panjtar and Käldarra inscriptions rather than those of Manikyala or Zeda.
(3) The symbol for 100 is exactly like those found in the Panjtar and Mount Banje inscriptions.
* Ounningham's Coins of the Salas (reprinted from the Nomiamatic Chronicle), p. 15.
Indian Palaography (od. Floot), p. 25. Senart's No. 36 in J. 4., 9 nório, tom, IV, p. 514; pl. v.