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THE DATE OF KANISHKA
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Roman solidus" and that the Kushan monarch can hardly be placed before Titus (79-81 A.D.) and Trajan (98-117 A.D.). 1
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2. According to Marshall, Sten Konow, Smith and several other scholars Kanishka's rule began about 125 or 144 A.D., and ended in the second half of the second century A.D. Now, we learn from the Sui Vihar inscription that Kanishka's dominions included a portion at least of the Lower Indus Valley. Again we learn from the Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman that the Mahākshatrapa's conquests extended to Sindhu and Sauvira (which included Multan according to the Puranas and Alberuni) and even to the land of the Yaudheyas in the direction of the Sutlej. Rudradaman certainly flourished from A.D. 130 to A.D. 150. He did not owe his position as Mahakshatrapa to anybody else (svayam adhigata Mahakshatrapa nāma). If Kanishka reigned in the middle of the second century A.D., how are we to reconcile his mastery over the Sui Vihar region in the Lower Indus Valley with the
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1 Camb. Short History, p. 77.
2 Recently Ghirsman suggested the period A. D, 144-72 for Kanishka (Begram, Recherches Archeologique et Historiques sur les Kouchans). The argument that India was still in A. D. 125 governed by a Viceroy (and therefore, not by Kanishka or Huvishka) is effectively disposed of by Thomas in JRAS., 1913. 1024. He points out that the historian of the Later Han is obviously. referring to the conditions at the time of the invasion of Wima Kadphises, and not to the state of things in A.D. 125.
3 Dr. Sten Konow's views are difficult to ascertain. In the Indian Studies in honour of C. R. Lanman (Harvard University Press), p. 65, he mentions A.D. 134 as the initial point of the Kanishka reckoning which he and Dr. Van Wijk "have tried to establish" (cf. Acta Orientalia, III, 54 ff.). But in IHQ.. III (1927), p. 851, he, along with Dr. Van Wijk, shows a predilection for A.D. 128-29 (ef. Corpus, Ixxvii; Acta Orientalia, V, 168 ff). Professor Rapson (in JRAS., 1930, 186 ff) points out the conjectural and inconclusive character of the two doctors' calculations. "The year 79," says he, "seems to be out of the running and a dark horse, the year 128-9, is the favourite."
4 Ep. Ind. VIII. 44.
