Indian Antiquary Vol 42

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

Page 145

MAY, 1913.)
INDIAN INSCRIPTIONS AND THE KAVYA
137
sequently Kaņishka, to pre-Christian times falls likewise the possibility of placing the succession of kings from Kanishka to Vasudeva before Kujula-Kadphises 20, whose conquests, according to Professor Chavannes 21 and Professor Franke, 22 took place in the first post-Christian centary. In these respects I am now entirely at one with Professor Oldenberg, who has recently treated the whole problem in a penetrating way.28 The exact determination of the era however depends before all on the question whether we should identify the king of the Ta-Yüe-chi, Po-tino, who sont in the year 229 A. D. an ombassy to China, with Vâsudova, the successor of Huvishka. In that case the ora would start at the earliest with 130 and at the latest with 168 A. D. None of the grounds which Oldenberg has adduced against this supposition is decisive. On the other hand, the identification of Po-t'iao with Våsudeva is, as observed by Chavannes, merely permissible and not necessary; besides there still remains the possibility that a later and another Vasudeva is meant. Accordingly a consensus omnium can hardly be attained at once, and final decision will vary according to the evidential value attached to the Chinese data. Oar inscription has, however, perceptibly narrowed the bounds of the possible, a fact the value of which, under the prevailing circumstances, is not to be underestimated.
Postscript. After I had already written the above paper, I received the July number of Jour. R. As. Soc. containing the first half of the essay by J. Kennedy, on the Secret of Kaņishka." The author supports the theory of Fleet and Franke. So far as I see there is nothing in the essay which invalidates the clear evidence of our inscription. This is not the place to enter into details; only one word I shall say regarding the argument upon which Kennedy seems to place chief reliance. Kennedy arguos thos (p. 667): 'We must date Kaņisbks either 100 years before 50 A. D. or after 100 A. D. (strictly speaking after 120 A. D.). Now the legends on his coin are in Greek. The use of Greek as a language of everyday life however coased in the country to the East of the Euphrates partly before and partly soon after the close of the first Christian centary. Hence Kaņishka cannot be placed in the second oentury, but must belong to a period prior to the Christian times."
Now before me lie a pair of foreign coins : a nickel coin from Switzerland of 1900 and Penny of 1897. The inscription on tho former reads: Confoederatio Helvetica. On the Penny stands Victoria. Dei. Gra. Britt. Regina. Fid. Def. Ind. Imp. I pity the historian of the fourth millennium who will draw from the coins the conclusion that about the year 1900 Latin was the language of daily life in the mountains of Switzerland and in the British Isles.
INDIAN INSCRIPTIONS AND THE KAVYA.
BY G. BUHLEB. [Translated by Prof. V. 8. Ghate, M.A., Poona.]
(Continued from p. 32.)
II. Vatsabhatti's Prabasti. Vatsabhafti's composition consists of 44 verses, not to mention the two blossings' or mangalas in prose form at the beginning and at the end. The whole can be divided into sections, as follows:
1. The mangala addressed to the Sun in verses 1-3 of which the 1st and the 3rd belong to the type of what is technically called dois or drodda (blessings), while the end verse falls under the category of namaskriti or namaskara (salutation).
** Fleet, Jour. R. As. Soc. 1903, p. 334, 1907, p. 1048; Franko. Beiträge aus Chinas inchengwollen wir konntau der. Türkvölker. &o. p. 98 ff. * Tong Pao, 8. II, Vol. VIII, p. 101, note 1.
n Beitrago p. 71. 13 Zur Frage nach der Ara des Kandika., N.G. G. W. Phil. Hist. KL. 1011, pp. 1971. #4 Toung Pao, 8. II. Vol. V., p. 489.