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434 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDİA
to proceed to Surattha (Surāshtra) Vishaya (country) and Ujjain in Hindukadeśa (India) where they overthrew some local chiefs and ruled for four years till they were themselves ousted by the founder of the era of 58 B.C.
The Śakas are also mentioned in the Prasastis of Gautamiputra śātakarņi and Samudra Gupta. Their kingdom or empire "Sakasthāna” is probably mentioned in the Mahāmāyāri (95), in the Mathurā Lion Capital Ingcription and in the Chandravalli Stone Inscription of the Kadamba Mayūraśarman. The passage in the Mathurā inscription containing the word Sakasthāna runs thus :
Sarvasa Sakastanasa puyae. Cunningham and Biihler interpreted the passage as meaning "for the merit, or in honour, (of the people) of the whole of Sakasthāna." Dr. Fleet, however, maintained that "there are no real grounds for thinking that the Sakas ever figured as invaders of any part of northern India above Kāthiāwād and the western and southern parts of the territory now known as Mālwa." He took Sarva to be a proper name and translated the inscriptional passage referred to above as "a gift of Sarva in honour of his home."
Fleet's objection is ineffective. Chinese evidence clearly establishes the presence of Sakas in Kipin, i.e., Kāpisa-Gandhāra. As regards the presence of the tribe at Mathurā, the site of the inscription, we should note that the Mārkandeya Purūna3 refers to a Saka settlement in the Madhyadeśa. Dr. Thomas* points out that the
1 JRAS., 1904, 703 f. ; 1905, 155, 643 f. ; Mr. N. G. Majumdar (JASB., 1924, 17) takes Sakastana, to mean Sakrasthāna, i.e., 'the place of Indra.' Cf. Fleet in JRAS., 1904, 705.
2 Note also the Kāpiśa types of the coins of Maues and Spalirises (CHI, 560n, 562, 591) and the foundation of a Kāpiśa satrapy (Corpus, ii. 1. 150f.)
3 Chapter 58. 4 Ep. Ind., 1x, pp. 138 ff.; JRAS., 1906, 207 f., 215 f.
