Indian Antiquary Vol 40

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 21

JANUARY, 1911.)
FOREIGN ELEMENTS IN THE HINDU POPULATION.
13
(Who has obtained profuse fame by studying and remembering, by the knowledge and prac tice of grammar, music, logic and other great lores.)
Rudradaman thus not only bore a Hindu name but had also made himself thoroughly conversant with Dinda sciences. But he was by origic a stranger! So perfectly Hinduised these Saka Kshatrapa families had become that the other royal Hindu families did not think it polluting or degrading to contract matrimonial alliances with them. The Satavahana dynasty, whose other variant Salivabona is so well-known to the people of Maharashtra, and whose Hindu origin is incontrovertible, was thus connected with this Kshatrapa family. A Kaņhert cave inscription says:
.........( ar Jangwe are gotet : T i rar
ETTEL *gsu............... .........1 PETEY STATETET E
B Å : [11] The inscription records the gift of one Sateraka, the minister of a certain queen, whose name is lost. But she is said to have been the wife of V&sishtiputra Sri-Satakarni, a Satavahana king, and dnughter of a Mahi-Kshatrapa called Ra(dra). This Rudra has rightly been supposed to bo Ruradiman by the late Dr. Büller. Here then we find that a Satavahana prince named Väsishtliputra Sri-Satakarại, who, as shown by me elsewhere, was the second son of Gautamiputra Satakarni, the exterminator of the Kshaharâta Kshatrapa family, had actually been married to a daughter of the Mahil-Kshatrapa Ruradaman. These Saka kings bad thas become so thoroughly Hinduised that another Hinda royal dynasty had no scraples whatever, social or religious, in entering into matrimonial relationship with them.
Let us now see what the predilections of private Baka individuals were. At Násik, there are two cave inscriptions which speak of their benefactions. One is as follow928;
सिद्धं शकस दामचिकस लेखकस बुधिकत विष्णुश्तपुतस दशपुरवाथवस लेण.
Diag ......... The inscription records the gift of a dwelling cave and two cisterns by Vadbika, i. e., Vriddhika son of Vishnudatto, a Saka and a resident of Dasapura, i. o., Mandasaur in the Gwalior State. The names Vriddhika and Vishņudatta are Hindu, and both would have passed for Hindus, if their Saka extraction had not been specified. The other inscription. refers itself to the reign of a king called Isvarasena, and then runs as follow520
....... TEATEAT T रेभिलस्य भार्यया गणपकस्य विश्ववर्मस्थ मात्राः शकनिक्रया उपासिकया विष्णुदत्तया
गिलानभेषजार्थ अक्षयनीवी प्रयुक्ता The inscription records the gift of a permanent endowment for proouring medicine to the sick, by one Vishņudatta. She is called an upasikd, a female Baddhist lay-worshipper. She is styled Sakanika, and is stated to have been the daughter of a Saka called Agnivarman. She was the wife of a Gaņapaka Rebhila and mother of Gaņapaka VibraFarman, Now, it is worthy of note that Vishộadatta's father is called Saka Agnivarman. He was, therefore, a Saka. But his name, viz. Agaivarman, is distinctly Hindu, and what is strange is that, as the ending suffix varman shows, he was at that time looked upon as a Kshatriya. Ganapaka too, like Saka, must have been s tribal name, but we have no means of determining whether it was the name of an indigenous or foreign tribe. Being the daughter of a Saka, Vishqudattá is oalled a Sakapika, though married to a Ganapaka. This reminds us of the present Rajput princesses, who are known at their
Arch. Buro, West Ind., Vol. V., p. 78. # Bp. Ind., Vol. VIII., p. 95.
10 Juur. Bem, dt. Eoc., Vol. XXILL, PP. 72-3. * Ibid., p. 83.