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No. 42.]
DATES OF SOME EARLY KINGS OF KAUSAMBI.
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occurrence of the so-called eastern forms of m and h in a Western Kshatrapa record of Saka 127 (A. D. 205). The Gupta forms of these letters were thus not unknown in the second and third centuries A. D.
But it may be objected that these forms occur only sporadically in the aforementioned records of the Kushāņa period. They do not show that these forms had become current at the time. To prove this we must have some record which definitely belongs to the Kushāņa period and exhibits all these forms together as in the Kosam inscriptions under consideration. Such a record is not difficult to find. I draw attention to the Mathura pedestal inscription of the reign of Kanishka. The characters of this inscription closely resemble those of the Kosam records. They include the so-called Eastern Gupta forms of the letters m, s and h. In other respects, such as the forms of the medial vowels, of n, v, sh, etc., they are akin to other Kushana records, though they are somewhat more cursive. The date of this record should give a clue to the age of the Kosam records under discussion.
This Mathura inscription refers itself to the reign of Mahārāja Devaputra Kanishka. It is dated on the 10th day of Pausha in the year 54. As shown elsewhere, this Kanishka must be identified with Kanishka II whose Ara inscription is dated in the year 41. The date 54 must of course be referred to the era started by Kanishka I. The beginning of this era is still uncertain, but most scholars are now in favour of identifying it with the Saka era of A. D. 78. In view of the similarity of the characters used in this Mathura pedestal inscription of the year 54 and the Kosam records of the years 52-139, it seems certain that all these records. are dated in the same era, viz., the Kushana era founded by Kanishka. And this is but natural; for Kanishka carried his arms as far as Pațaliputra in the east. In the south his empire extended at least up to the Narmada. His era seems to have been current throughout his extensive empire long after his death. Inscriptions dated in it have been found at Sarnath in the east, Sanchi in the south and Wardak near Kabul in the north-west. Once an era becomes current in a part of the country and the people become accustomed to use it, it continues to be used long after the founder or his family has ceased to rule. The era of Harsha continued to be used long after him, though his empire crumbled to pieces almost immediately after his death. We do not know who founded the so-called Kalachuri-Chedi era. But it was used in Gujarat, Knokan and Maharashtra for several centuries after the memory of its founder had faded from the public mind. The same thing must have happened in the case of the Kushāņa era.
It is not known if the Vatsa and Chedi countries were included in the Kushana Empire during the reign of Huvishka; for, no inscriptions of the king have been found there. R. D. Banerji conjectured from the absence of Kushana records between the years 60 and 74 that during the last years of Huvishka's reign the Kushana Empire in India was convulsed by civil
1 Above, Vol. XXI, pp. 2 f.
2 Ibid., Vol. XIX, pp. 96 f., and plate.
See for the discussion on the date of this record, above, pp. 293 ff.
Dr. Sten Konow places the beginning of this era in A. D. 128-29 (C. I. I., Vol. II, pt. i, p. xc v).
Though this era is usually called the Chedi era, it does not seem that it originated in the Chedi country; for, its early dates come from the Bombay Presidency. The name Chedi-samvat occurs for the first time in a record of the year 919 (A. D. 1167-68) from Chhattisgarh. It was then current in the Chedi country. In an earlier record of the year 831 (A. D. 1079) the date is introduced with the words Chedibasya samvat evidently because it was used by the Kalachuris who were then ruling over the Chedi country. The connection of the Kalachuris with this era does not go before the year 347 (A. D. 595).
It is conjectured from the discovery of the impression of a medal of Huvishka under the Vajrasa..a throne inside the temple of Bodh Gaya that the Empire of Huvisha included Bihar (Ind. Ant., Vol. XXXVII, p. 60).
