Indian Antiquary Vol 42

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

Page 201

JULY, 1913.]
INDIAN INSCRIPTIONS AND THE KAVYA
189
Saks era and thus corresponds to our year 150 or 151. This date is the first of a long series, which continues down to the year 310. Inscriptions provide the following dates:-103 for Rudradáman's son Rudrasimha, 127 for Rudrasimha's son Rudrasena, and 252 for Svami Rudrasena; while on the numerous coins are frequently represented almost all the decades between 100 and 310. During this long period, the successors of Chashtans appear to have maintained their sovereignty over western India, except for a short interruption, and to have been in possession of Malwa as well as the neighbouring provinces of Gujarât and Kathiâwâr. There is nothing in the inscriptions before us, that would admit the conclusion that their capital was ever removed from Ujjain further westwards. On the other band, our inscription shows quite clearly that the residence of the prince lay outside of Gujarat and Kathiên war, as his officer Su visakha, according to 1. 18, was governor of Anartai and Sarashtra. The successors of the Kshatrapas, in the sovereignty over Malwi and the whole of western India, were the Guptas, whose conquest of the former province falls before or in the Gupta year 82, i.e., 400/1 or 401/2 A.D., as is shown by Mr. Fleet's No 3. Accordingly, it is to be expected that the last date of the Kshatrapas coming from Ohashtana's race can not lie far removed from the Gupta year 82. And this is actually the case, if the year 310 on the Kshatrapa coins is interpreted as a year of the Saks era. Then it corresponds to the year 388 or 389 A.D., and is removed only by eleven years from the year in wbich the conquest of Mâlwê can have taken place at the latest. Though this very consideration is enough to cominend the identification of the era used by the Kshatrapas with that of the Saka kings, there are still many other reasons of not less importance, which would confirm the same. The titles of Chashtana are rdjan, Kshatrapa or Mahakshatrapa, and svå min. The word Kshatrapa is, no doubt, as has been long ago asserted, an adaptation of the Persian Kshatrapa 'satrap.' Because, although we can look upon the word as a pure Sanskrit word and translate it by the protector of Kshatriyas, still such a title is entirely unknown to Sanskrit literature, Kshatrapa and its Prakrit substitute Chhatrapa or Khatrapa occur in the first place, in the coins and inscriptions of barbarous kings and their governors, who ruled over the north-western India. Even Chashtana as well as his father, the Mahakshatrapa Ygamotika, 50 were foreigners, and there is no reason why we should believe that the title was fixed upon them in a different sense. If Chashtana bears the title of rajan also, well, it might bave been conferred upon him only as a mark of distinction for some special service. In a similar manner, the vassals named samanta or mahdsdmanta, as well as other high dignitaries received the title mahardjal in the fifth, sixth and later centuries. Chashtana's suzerain can have been just one of the Indo-Scythian kings whose might had overshadowed the whole of the north-western and western India, towards the close of the first century and in the second century, as is shown by the inscriptions and the accounts of the Greeks; and a still clearer proof of his connection with the north-west is provided by his coins, wherein his name is given in the Bactro-Pali or rather Kharoshtr152 alphabet which is written from right to left. It is very probable that the descendants and the immediate successors of Chashtana bore the same relation to the rulers of the Indo-Scythian kingdom as long as it was in existence. As for Radradáman, in particular, I see a clear confession of his dependence in the expression (1. 15) svayam-adhigata-Mahdkshatrapa-sabdena,
* The three dated_insoriptions are, that on the rook of Gunda, ante, Vol. X., p. 157, that on the pillar of Jandan, Jour, Bo. Br. Roy. As. Soc., Vol. VIII, p. 284 ff. (in which, acoording to an impression of Mr. Dhruva's, the date is to be read as (trilyuttarasate 100[+]3), and one unpublished insoription on a pillar in Okhåmapdal, of whioh I possess & aktoh and a photograph. The view, that the era used by the western Kahatrapas in the Sala ere, is found at first in the Jour. Bo. Br. Roy. As. soc., Vol. VIII. P. 248 ffand is further developed in Dr. Bhåpdarkar's Early History of the Dekkan, p. 19 8. See also Jour. Roy. As. Soc., N. 8. 1890, P. 639 r. I have opposed the same in Arch. Buru. West. India, Vol. V., p. 73, while I believed that the beginning of the Gupta era fell in the second century p. Chr.
* Anarta includes Northern Kathil war and northern Gujarat up to the Mabl.
Notion specially the copper-plate on which the Chhatrapa Links Kusula appears by the side of the king Moga. In this case it is quite olear that Liaka was the Satrap of Moga.
See Jour. B. Br. Roy. 41. Soc., Vol. VIII, p. 3. A very nicely preserved coin on which this name is very clearly readable, was shown to me, some years ago, by Dr. Burge88. Dr. Bhagvanlal reade the name as Ghsamotika.
$! See Fleet, Corpus inscr. Ind., Vol. III., P. 15 note.
12 Seo Professor Terrien de la Conperio Babylonian Record, Vol. I, p. 60. Dr. Bhagvanlal (ante, VIII. p. 256) has rightly recognized the historical significance of the use of this alphabet on Chashtana's coins.
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