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478 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDIA
The last notable king of Kanishka's line was Vāsudeva I. His dates range from the year 671 to 98. i. e.. A. D. 145 to 176 according to the system of chronology adopted in these pages. He does not appear to have been a Buddhist. His coins exhibit the figure of Siva attended by Nandi. There can be no doubt that he reverted to Śaivism, the religion professed by his great predecessor Kadphises II. A king named Vāsudeva is mentioned in the Kavya Mimāṁsā as a patron of poets and a Sabhāpati, apparently ‘President of a Society' (of learned men). That the Kushān Age was a period of great literary activity is proved by the works of Ašvaghosha, Nāgārjuna and others. It was also a period of religious ferment and missionary activity. It witnessed the development of Saivism and the allied cult of Kārtikeya, of the Mahāyāna form of Buddhism and the cults of Mihira and of Vasudeva-Krishņa, and it saw the introduction of Buddhism into China by Kāśyapa Mātanga (c. 61-68 A.D.).
“The dynasty of Kanishka opened the way for Indian civilization to Central and Eastern Asia."
The inscriptions of Vāsudeva have been found only in the Mathurā region. From this it is not unreasonable to surmise that he gradually lost his hold over the northwestern portion of the Kushān dominions.
About the middle of the third century A.D., we hear of the existence of no less than four kingdoms all dependent on the Yue-chi,' and ruled probably by princes of the Yue-chi stock 2
1 Mr. M. Nagor makes mention of an inscription incised on the base of a stone image of the Buddha acquired from Pālikherā (Mathura Museum, no 2907) which records the installation of the image in the year 67 during the reign of Vasudeva.
2 Cf. Kennedy, JRAS, 1913, 1060 f. Among the successors of Vasudeva I may be mentioned Kanishka (III); Vasu (Whitehead, Indo-Greek Coins, pp. 211-12; cf. RDB, JASB, Vol. IV (1908), 81 ff; Altekar, N.H.I.P. VI. 14 n) or Vasudeva II.
