________________
KUSHĀN AND ŚAKA CHIEFTAINS 547 as well as the people of Simhala and all other dwellers in islands.1
The Daivaputra-Shāhi-Shāhānushāhi belonged apparently to the Kushān dynasty of the north-west, which derived its origin from the Devaputra Kanishka.? The Saka Murundas must have included the northern chiefs of Scythian nationality who issued the Ardochsho coins as well as the Śaka chieftains of Surāshtra and Central India, the representatives of a power which once domi. nated even the Ganges valley. Sten Konow tells us that Murunda is a Śaka word meaning lord, Sanskrit Svāmin. The epithet Svāmin was used by the Kshatrapas of Surāshtra and Ujjain. A Sāñchi inscription discovered by Marshall discloses the existence of another Saka principality or province which was ruled about A.D. 319 by the Mahādandanāyaka Sridharavarman, son of Nanda. 3 A Murunda Svūmini (noble lady) is mentioned in a Khoh Inscription of Central India. To Scythian chiefs of the Vindhyan region should perhaps be attributed the so-called "Puri Kushān" coins which are found in large numbers in the neighbourhood of the Eastern Vindhyas and some adjoining tracts. The
1 Some control over the islands in the neighbouring seas is possibly hinted at in the epithet Dhanada- Varunendrāntakasama, the equal of Dhanada (Kuvera, lord of wealth, guardian of the north), Varuna (the Indian Sea-god, the guardian of the west), Indra, king of the celestials and guardian of the east, and Antaka (Yama, god of death, and guardian of the south). The comparison of Samudra Gupta with these deities is apposite and possibly refers not only to his conquests in all directions, but to his possession of immense riches, suzerainty over the seas, the spread of his fame to the celestial region and his extirpation of various kings. Inscriptions discovered in the Trans-Gangetic Peninsula and the Malay Archipelago testify to the activities of Indian navigators (e.g. the Mahānāvika from Raktampittikā mentioned in a Malayan epigraph) and military adventures in the Gupta Age.
2. Smith RAS, 1897, 32) identified him with Grumbates. Some scholars take the expression to refer to different kings and chieftains. Cf. Allan xxvii. There may also be a reference to the Sassanids as well.
3 Ep. Ind., xvi, p. 232 ; JRAS, 1923, 337 ff,
