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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1881.
Now as far as can be done by numismatical beginning from the destruction of the Saka arguments alone, Dr. von Sallet has shown to empire, we may oppose to this statement the what period the series of kings-Kanishka, testimony of an inscription which is nearly Huvish ka, and Vasadeva-must belong. five hundred years anterior to Albirûni. The An approximate estimate of the time elapsed date of this inscription is expressed as follows: from the last Greek kings whose date is known, “When five hundred years had elapsed since till the reign of Kanishka,-secondly, the the royal abhisheka of the saka ruler." I connection in which the coins of Yndopheres believe it will not be deemed difficult to ac(or Gondophares)'and Sana barus, who must count for the fact that national patriotism in have reigned before Kanishka, stand with late India preferred to connect traditionally an era Arsacidan coins-perhaps also the Christian that, by its very name, reminded of the sway legend which makes Gondophares contem- of barbarian conquerors, with the defeat rather porary with the apostles,-and finally the con- than with the coronation of the oppressor. nection of the gold coins which follow after | It cannot be doubted that we are right in Vâsadeva's gold coinage, with the coins of claiming for Kanishka the name of a saka Sapor I :-all these arguments combined make king. I dare not follow the scholars who have it most probable that Herr von Sallet is right preceded me in utilizing for this subject the in believing that the series of Kanishka- Chinese accounts of the different barbarian tribes, Huvish ka-Vasudev a cannot have begun with their subdivisions, that held sway over India at an earlier date than the first century A. D., during those times. But this may be asserted and that it must end somewhere about 200 A. D. with certainty, that the only name really car.
If we try, therefore, to place this series, which, rent in India for the northern barbarians who according to the inscriptions, must occupy ruled there for centuries, and to whom the about a hundred years, between Gondo. dynasty of Kanishka belonged, cannot have phares (about 50 A. D.) and the end of the been any other than that of Sakas. Moresecond century, we are almost inevitably led to over, we possess direct testimony to show that the following result, which, we think, clearly the tribe to which Kanishka belonged, was presents itself, namely, that the era of Kanishka a Śak a tribe. is identical with the Saka era, which begins in 78 | Kanishka styles himself on his coins A. D.,' and which, as is well known, is men- PAONANOPAO KANHPKI KOPANO. Here KOPANO tioned in royal grants as early as in the fifth certainly indicates a tribe or a family. It is quite century A. D. (Sakansipakálasarivatsara). inadmissible to identify this word with the Greek
A tradition frequently mentioned, and which Kolpavos. For firstly, the appearance of the word Albirûni follows in his important state- koipavos, belonging to Homeric language, on the ments about the Indian eras, represents the coins of a laté barbarian king, would be more Śaka era as beginning, not from the abhisheka, than strange." But the decisive fact is that but from the defeat and death of the "Saka- we never find the word KOPANO on Kanishka's king." Besides calling attention to the ex- coins with Greek legends (BACIAEYC BACIAEON treme improbability of the "Saka king's era" KANHPKOY), but only on those with barbaric
To the statement of Dr. Von Sallet (Nachfolger Alexan. ders, p. iv) that the monogram of Yndopheres is found stamped on a drachm of the Arsacide Orodes I, we ought to add Gen. Cunningham's statement (Arch. Rep., vol. V, p. 60) that s drachm of Artabanas III. (14-49 A. D.?) shows the same monogram. • L. c. p. 185.
We must remind our readers here of the strange fact, which is, however, attested very satisfactorily, that in ancient times the initial dates from which the different Indian eras were counted were subject to fluctuations of several years. Statements like this that the Saks era begins in 78 A. D., cannot be accepted, therefore, as absolutely exact; the Javanese Saka era begins in 74 A.D., the era of Bali in 80 A.D. See Barnell, South Indian Palaography, p. 54.
The most ancient instance which occurs to me of the Saka era being expressly mentioned in an inscription, is the Umetà grant Saka 400. About this date and other ancient
Saks dates the remarks of Dr. Böhler in the Ind. Antiquary, vol. V, (1876) p. 111, should be compared.
See the ChAlukya inscription published by Mr. Bargess, Arch. Survey of Western India, vol. II, p. 237 seg. and vol. II, p. 119; also Ind. Ant., vol. III, p. 305; vol. VI, p. 863, and vol. I, p. 58, plate; sakanripatirajydbhishekasariwatsareshvatikrinteshu pañchasu sateshu.
10 We shall find afterwards another case entirely apalogous to this. The Gapta kings were considered in popular tradition, as stated by Albirunt, to have been "wicked, potent persons." Exactly as in the case of the Saks era, the tradition represented the Gupta ere also se beginning from the "destruction of the Gupta rule. Here, however, the inscriptions show that the Gupta kings themselves used the Gaptakala, the initial date of which must be, therefore, the foundation, and not the extinction, of the Gupta empire. _” The coins of the Greek kings who ruled before Esnishka over the same country, do not show the word koipavos.
