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CHRONOLOGY OF GUJARAT
A.D.
not fully legible and hence the attribution requires a better preserved specimen-(Rapson, ibid, CXV f., CXVII f.).
Nahapāna struck coins of both silver and copper. The silver coins are apparently imitated, as regards size, weight and fabric, from the hemi-drachms of the Graeco-Indian kings; and in these respects they set a standard which was followed by the Western Ksatrapas for some two hundred and seventy years, and afterwards by their successors the Guptas and the Traikūțakas, From the same source too, and probably also partly from the Roman denarii, which were brought in the way of commerce to the Western ports of India, they derived their obverse type: 'Head of king', which became a permanent feature in these coinages.
The Graeco-Roman characters of their obv. inscriptions, which, after being used for a short period to transliterate the Brāhmi and Kharoşthi coin-legend of the rev., degenerated into a sort of ornament, traces of which remained even on the silver coins of the Guptas.
The rev. type of the silver coins is substantially the obv. type of the Bhūmaka's copper coins. The legend on the rev. is incised both in Brāhmi and Kharosthi. It runs as follows : राज्ञो क्षहरातस नहपानस | in Brahmi and, रानो छहरातस HET I in Kharosthi, i.e. Of king Kşaharāta Nahapāna'.
In the four Andhāu Stone-inscriptions, dated $. 52, Fälgun ba. 2 ( 131 A.D.), Caştana appears as reigning jointly with his grandson Rudradāman. Therein the titles' Kşatrapa' and 'Mahākṣatrapa’ are not specified; but it is obvious that by this time Castana reigned as Mahākṣatrapa and Rudradāman as Kşatrapa.
These inscriptions were originally found on a raised spot at village Andhāu is Khāvadā or Paccham Taluka in Kaccha, but were removed and brought to the Bhuj Museum by Diwan Bahadur Ranchhodbhai in 1906. These are the earliest dated inscriptions in Prākrit, influenced by Sanskrit, in Brāhmi script, of the Western Kșatrapas of Ujjain. They imply the system of joint rule in this dynasty, and the site indicates the Kşatrapa rule over Kaccha. -(Andhāu Stone-Inscriptions : EI, XVI, 19).
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These four lastis* (memorial pillars) of the same date, were raised during the joint reign of king Caştana, son of Ysāmotika and king Rudradāman, the son of Jayadāman. Three of these lastis were erected by Madana, son of Sihila in honour of his three deceased relatives, viz. : (1) Sister Jeștavīrā of Opaśati
* The word ge has been used as af8 (17) in the Suivibara (a ruined Stupa, near Bhawalpur) copper-plate inscription of Kaniska I (CII, II, 141), dated C. 89 A.D, and indicates monumental pillars, which are even now called latha, from Prakrit lathi, and probably contained the corporeal relics of the persons named
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