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CHAPTER VII. THE FALL OF THE MAGADHAN
AND INDO-GREEK POWERS. SECTION I. The Kanvas, THE LATER ŚUNGAS AND
THE LATER MITRAS.
Vasudeva at whose instance, the "over-libidinous Śunga” was "reft of his life® founded about 75 B.C. a new line of kings known as the Kāņva or Kāṇyāyana dynasty. The Purānas give the following account of this family. “He (Vasudeva), the Kāņvāyana, will be king 9 years. His son Bhūmimitra will reign 14 years. His son Nārāyaṇa will reign 12 years. His son Sušarman will reign 10 years. These are remembered as the Gunga-bhritya Kāņvāyana kings. These four Kāņva Brāhmaṇas will enjoy the earth. They will be righteous. In succession to them the earth” will pass to the Andhras.” Bhūmimitra may have been identical with the king of that name known from coins.
1 Possibly only Eastern Malwa where stood the later "Sunga" capital Vidiśā or Besnagar, and some adjoining tracts.
2 Mr. J. C. Ghosh is inclined to include among the Kāņva kings a ruler named Sarvatāta who is known (from the Ghosundi Inscription, Ind. Ant. 1932, Nov., 203 ff; Ep. Ind., xxii, 198 ff.) to have been a devotee of Samkarshana and Väsudeva and a performer of the horse-sacrifice. But the identification of the Gājāyana family, to which the king belonged, with the Gādāyanas or Godayanas (cf. IHQ, 1933, 797 ff) does not seem to be plausible. There seems to be no more reason to identify the Gājāyanas with the Gādāyanas than with the Gābāyanas or Gāngāyanas of the Sunaka or Kaśyapa group (Caland, Baudh. Srauta Sutra, III, 423-454). It is important to remember the fact that the Harivainsa refers to a Kaśyapa dvija as the reviver of the Aśvamedha in the Kali Age. The Gangāyanas no doubt also recall the Gangas of Mysore who claimed to belong to the Kāņvāyana gotra (1 New History of the Indian People, Vol. VI. p 248). But the equation Gājāyana = Gāngāyana is not proved.
