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KSATRAPA PERIOD
188-9 188-9
188-90
Ś. 110: Mahākşatrapa Rudrasimha I struck silver coins.
Ś. 110: The evidence of silver coins struck by Rudrasimha I as Kșatrapa instead of Mahākṣatrapa indicates his degradation to the subordinate position of a Kşatrapa. D. R. Bhandarkar assigns this degradation to the suzereinty of Mahākṣatrapa īśvardatta-(ASI. AR. 1913-14, 227 ff.)
The legend on the coins is 11 HT4794 SATHITA (Rapson, ibid., 90 f.)
A king named Isvaradatta struck silver coins, which are dated in years 1 and 2 of his reign. The coins are of precisely the same style and type as those of Western Kśatrapas in all respects, except that the legend contains no patronymic, and gives the date in words, and that the coins are dated in regnal years (Rapson, ibid., 124 f.). It is, therefore, certain that he did not belong to the Kşatrapa dynasty and that he was very probably an Abhira connected with the dynasty represented at Nasik by Isvarasena-( Nasik caveInscription: EI, VIII, 88).
His appearance as Mahākşatrapa on coins directly imitated from those of the Western Kșatrapas would seem to bear testimony to a successful invasion of their dominions (Bhagvanlal, JRAS, 1890, p. 657). There is, however, a great controversy about his date. Bhagvanlal supposed that his reign would have commenced in 249 A.D. (ibid); but this view rested on the belief that a break of continuity in the reigns of the Mahākşatrapas of the regular dynasty was shown by the absence of dated coins between the S. years 171 ( 249 A.D.) and 176.
Further discoveries of coins have, however, proved that there was no such interregnum, but that the dates from 171 to 176 are continuous. (Rapson, ibid, 136-9). Rapson, therefore, consigned his reign to the interval between 158, (the last recorded year of the MKS. Dāmasena, fn. iii), and 161, (the vear in which his son Yasodāman I appears as Mahākşatrapa, pp. 127-8). -(Rapson, ibid, cxxxvi).
The subsequent discovery of the Sarvāṇiä hoard has brought to light year 160 of MKS. Yasodāman I; and hence, even Rapson's view is subject to reexamination. D. R. Bhandarkar re-examined this view in detail, and in conclusion was inclined to assign Isvaradatta to the years 110-112, which was a period of MKS. Rudradāmana l's degradation to the subordinate position of a Kşatrapa-(ASI, AR 1913-14, 227 ff.; A. S. Altekar: The Vākāțaka—Gupta age, p. 48; R. C. Majumdar, The Age of Imperial Unity, p. 186).
S. 112-Silver coins struck by Rudrasimha I as Kșatrapa-(Ibid, 91).
Ś. 113-The evidence of silver coins struck by Rudrasimha I as Mahäkşatrapa since year 113 (Rapson, ibid, 91, ff.) indicates that he succeeded in regaining his full power by this time.
190-1 191-2
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