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SECTION III. THE SAKAS OF UJJAIN AND KATHIAWAR.
The
The greatest rivals of the restored Satavahana Empire were at first the Saka Kshatrapas of Ujjain. progenitor of the Saka princes of Ujjain was Ysamotika who was the father of Chashṭana, the first Mahakshatrapa of the family. The name of Ysamotika is Scythic. His descendant, who was killed by Chandra Gupta II, is called a Saka king by Bana in his Harsha-charita. It is, therefore, assumed by scholars that the Kshatrapa family of Ujjain was of Saka nationality.
The proper name of the dynasty is not known.
Rapson says that it may have been Karddamaka. The daughter of Rudradaman boasts that she is descended from the family of Karddamaka kings; but she may have been indebted to her mother for this distinction. The Karddamaka kings apparently derive their name from the Kardama, a river in Persia.2
According to Dubreuil, Chashtana ascended the throne in A.D. 78, and was the founder of the Saka era. But this is improbable in view of the fact that the capital of Chashṭana (Tiastanes) was Ujjain (Ozene of Ptolemy), whereas we learn from the Periplus that Ozene was not a capital in the seventies of the first century A.D. The Periplus speaks of Ozene as a former capital, implying that it was not a capital in its own time.
1 JRAS, 1906, p. 211. Lévi and Konow (Corpus, II. i. lxx) identify Ysamotika with Bhumaka on the ground that the Saka word "Ysama" means earth. But identity of meaning of names need not necessarily prove identity of persons. Cf. the cases of Kumāra Gupta and Skanda Gupta.
2 Pārasika. Shamasastry's translation of the Kauțiliya, p. 86. See also IHQ, 1933, 37 ff. Cf. the Artamis of Ptolemy, VI. 11. 2, a tributary of the Oxus.
3 The Peripuls mentions Malichos (Maliku), the king of the Nabataeans, who died in A. D. 75, and Zoscales (Za Hakale), king of the Auxumites, who reigned from A. D. 76 to 80 (JRAS, 1917, 827-830).
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