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No. 42.)
DATES OF SOME EARLY KINGS OF KAUSAMBI.
297
Such a reconstruction of Kushāna history, however, does not seem probable ; for, the titles mentioned in these private records may be merely matters of accident. We notice the same thing in the case of Kanishka I. The records of the years 2 and 3 of his reign mention only the title Mahārāja. Even this title is absent in the subsequent record of the year 5.2 Then we find the title Rājātirāja in the records of the years 7, 8 and 11,* but it is absent again in those of the years 9 and 10. We cannot therefore draw any conclusion from the absence of the imperial titles in the records of Huvishka and Kanishka II.
How then are we to explain this strange phenoluenon of both Huvishka and Kanishka II ruling at Mathură in the years 50-58? I think the only theory which can explain it is that of the joint rule of these kings. In the Andhau inscription of Saka 52, we have a very similar case of Chashtana and his grandson Rudradā man ruling jointly in Mālwa and Käthiāwād. Another analogous instance is that of the Rashtrakūta princes Karka and his younger brother Govinda who were ruling in Gujarat jointly from Saka 732 to Saka 748.' Kanishka and Huvishka may similarly have ruled jointly at least during the period from the year 41 to the year 54.
No. 42.-DATES OF SOME EARLY KINGS OF KAUSAMBI.
BY PROF. V. V. MIRASHI, M.A., NAGPUR. From several stone inscriptions discovered at Kosam (ancient Kaušāmbi) and Giñjä in the United Provinces and Bāndhogarh in the Rewah State, we have come to know the names of some ancient rulers of Kausâmbi. The records are dated in an era, the beginning of which is still to be determined. It is proposed to examine the question in this article and to suggest a solution.
The records at Kosam and Giñjā, which have been published, may be chronologically arranged as follows. Their date portions are also given below for ready reference.
(1) Giñjā inscription of Mahārāja Bhimasēna (year 52)_Mahārājasya Sri-Bhimasēnasya sa[ri."]vatsarē 50 2 gimba-pakshē 4 divasa 10 2.
1 Above, Vol. XXIV, p. 212; and Lüders' List, etc., No. 925.
Ibid., No. 18. • Ibid., No. 21 : above, Vol. XVII, p. 11 and . I. I., Vol. II, pt. i, pp. 138 ff. • Lüders' List, etc., Nos. 22 and 23. . Above, Vol. XVI, pp. 23 ff. • For a discussion of this problem, see J. R. A. 8. for 1926, pp. 659 ff.
* Karka's grants are dated in Saka 734, 738, 743 and 748 and those of his younger brother Govinda in Saka 732.735, and 749. In his grants Govinda does not say that he made them with the permission of his elder brother, Agnin he pays in them a tribute to Karka which makes the theory of a civil war and usurpation of the kingdom by Govinda unlikely. As the villages granted by these brothers are in the same part of the country, nay, in some cases are situated within a few miles of one another, the theory that there was a division of the kingdom between them is also untenable. Dr. Altekar has suggested that Govinda was governing Gujarat as a deputy for his elder brother while the latter was acting as a regent for the boy king Amõghavarsba I, but the discovery of Govinda's grant dated Saka 732 has shown that Govinda was holding Gujarat even before the denth of the Rawhtrakata Raperor Govinda III. We must therefore suppose that the two brothers were ruling jointly in Gujarat.
Cunningham, A.S.R. Vol. XXI, Pl. XXX, and above, Vol. III, Pl. facing p. 306. 60 DGA
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