________________
No. 7.)
THE ARA INSCRIPTION OF KANISHKA II: THE YEAR 4).
The Āra inscription would accordingly belong to the last quarter of the second century A.D.; and with regard to the king Kanishka mentioned in it I do not think we can get beyond the suggestions made by Professor Lüders that he was a son of Våsishka and probably a grandson of Kanishka I.
Dr. Fleet has objected that, even if we read Vajheshka and not Vajheshpa in the Ara inscription, the names Vajheshka ana Vasishka cannot easily be identified, nothing justifying us in assuming that jh and 8 are two different renderings of one and the same sound. He admits that jh can represent the voiced 8-sound which is usually in phonetical works designated by , but he does not seem to know any analogy to the rendering of such as through a. I think however that we have a good analogy in another word which is used in Saka and Kashana records, viz. in the title kusulaa in the Mathura lion capital, kusuluka in the Patika plate, which is undoubtedly the same as the title kujula, Kolovao nged by Kadphises I. I agree with Professor Hultzsch1 that this is a Turkish word, though I do not identify it with güjla, <strong," but with güzel, beautiful." At all events the different writing, with and j, forms an almost exact parallel to the writings & and jh in the name of the successor of Kanishka I.
Kanishka II can only have held sway over a part of the Kushaņa empire and only during a short period. If we admit that the Manikiála inscription belongs to the reign of Kamishka I, we have dates for him between Sam. 3 and 18, for Våsishka between Sam. 24-28, for Havishka between Sam. 29-60, and for Väsudova between Sam. 74-98. Kanishka II may, as supposed by Professor Lüders, have issumed sovereignty. after Våsishka's demise in the North-West. Later on however Havishka seems to have conquered the North-West as well.
TEXT. 1 Maharajasa rajatirajasa devapotrasa [ka]i[se]rada % Vajhoshka-putrasa Kanishkaga sambataarse ekachapar[UJ8 (dai] sam 2020 i Jethasa masasa di [20 4 1) i[de] divas-chhanami
kha[a]e 4 [Kape] Dashafoteņa Poshaparis pato[e]na matarapitarana puya[e] 5 atmapasa sabbarya [SA ]putrasa Apugraharthae warya(sopa)pa 6 jatish[n] [hi]tae imo cha la 1 khipami [dhamada][a]
TRANSLATION
(During the reign) of the Maharaja, Rajatiraja, Dedaputra, Kaisara Kanishka, the son of Vajheshka, in the forty-first year, anno 41, on the 28th day of the month Jyaishtha, a this day-date a well was dug by Dashsfota, the son of Posbrapari, in honour of his mother and father, in order to confer benefit on himself together with his wife and his son, for the welfare of all beings in the various) births. And here I throw in one Lakh as a religious gift.
ZDXG., Vol 69, p. 176.
" CL the Ladimirs.
