Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T16:11:02.236Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A New Study of the Śaka-Kuṣāṇa Period1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Extract

Among the most difficult unsolved problems of Indian history and archaeology are the chronology of the dynasties generally called Śaka and Kuṣāṇa and the dating of the art of Gandhāra. Writing of the former in 1919, Dr. Vincent Smith declared: ‘definite progress towards a conclusive solution of the problem based upon solid facts has been made.… and … the uncertainty as to the chronology has been reduced to a period of forty years in round numbers. Or to state it otherwise, the question is, “Did Kanishka come to the throne in A.D. 78, or about forty years later?”’ But Dr. Smith's optimistic faith in progress has not been realized, and the last thirty years have rather added to our uncertainty than lessened it. Confusion was made worse confused by the many theories, continually revised, of the late Professor Konow, who grappled with the problem until the time of his death, but produced no chronology to obtain general assent. A few years ago Dr. Ghirshman devised a new chronological scheme, which had the advantage of simplicity and was widely accepted, especially on the other side of the Channel; but this has not by any means passed unquestioned, and authorities are now perhaps further from unanimity than ever.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1953

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 80 note 2 Oxford History of India, 2nd edn., pp. 126–7.Google Scholar

page 80 note 3 Bégram, Recherches archéologiques et historiques sur les Kouchans. Mémoires de la Délégation archéologique française en Afghanistan, tome xii, Cairo, 1946.Google Scholar Henceforth Bégram.

page 81 note 1 Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. ii, Calcutta, 1929Google Scholar (henceforth CH, ii), p. xxv.Google Scholar

page 81 note 2 CII, ii, p. xxxvi.Google Scholar

page 82 note 1 Senart, E. in Epigraphia Indica (henceforth EI), vols. viiGoogle Scholar and viii, for the Nāsik inscriptions. Burgess and Bühler, Archæological Survey of Western India, vol. iv, p. 103Google Scholar, for the Junnār inscription.

page 82 note 2 Rapson, , Catalogue of the Coins of the Āndhra Dynasties, the Western Kṣatrapas, etc. British Museum, London, 1908, pp. 65 ff., and pl. ix.Google Scholar

page 82 note 3 Ibid., pp. 72 ff., and pl. x.

page 82 note 4 EI, xvi, pp. 23 ff.Google Scholar

page 82 note 5 EI, viii, p. 78, no. 10.Google Scholar

page 82 note 6 Archæological Survey of Western India, vol. v, London, 1883, p. 78.Google Scholar

page 83 note 1 EI, viii, pp. 42 ff.Google Scholar, line 12.

page 83 note 2 EI, viiiGoogle Scholar, plates iv and v.

page 83 note 3 EI, viii, pi. vii, no. 16.Google Scholar

page 84 note 1 EI, xxiii, pp. 52 ff.Google Scholar

page 84 note 2 EI, xii, p. 320.Google Scholar

page 84 note 3 Śrīr [sic] m Mālava-gaṇ’-āmnāte praśaste Kṛta-saṃjñite.

page 84 note 4 Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, vol. iii, Calcutta, 1888 (henceforth CII, iii), pp. 81 ff.Google Scholar

page 84 note 5 CII, iii, pp. 152 ff.Google Scholar

page 84 note 6 Bégram, pp. 107–8.Google Scholar

page 84 note 7 On the Vikramāditya legend v. the very thorough essay of DrRaychaudhuri, H. C., Vikramāditya in History and Legend, Vikrama Commemoration Volume, Ujjain, 1948, pp. 483511.Google Scholar

page 85 note 1 Bégram, pp. 105–8.Google Scholar

page 85 note 2 CII, ii, p. 28.Google Scholar

page 85 note 3 cII, ii, p. 48.Google Scholar

page 85 note 4 EI, ix, p. 243.Google Scholar

page 85 note 5 CII, ii, p. 141.Google Scholar

page 85 note 6 CII, ii, p. 149.Google Scholar

page 85 note 7 CII, ii, p. 77.Google Scholar

page 85 note 8 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (henceforth JRAS), 1932, p. 949.Google Scholar

page 85 note 9 Journal of the Bihar and Orissa Research Society, 23, p. 261.Google Scholar

page 86 note 1 CII, ii, p. xliii.Google Scholar

page 86 note 2 JRAS, 1914, p. 979.Google Scholar

page 86 note 3 Cambridge History of India, vol. i (henceforth CHI, i), 1922, p. 572.Google Scholar

page 86 note 4 V. references in Raychaudhuri, H. C., Political History of Ancient India, 5th edn., Calcutta, 1950, p. 487, n. 3.Google Scholar

page 87 note 1 CII, ii, p. 62.Google Scholar

page 88 note 1 Tacitus, , vi, 36.Google Scholar

page 88 note 2 CII, ii, p. xlvi.Google Scholar

page 88 note 3 Numismatic Chronicle, 1944, pp. 99104.Google Scholar

page 89 note 1 CHI, i, p. 580.Google Scholar

page 89 note 2 op. cit., pp. 101–2.

page 89 note 3 Bégram, pp. 120 ff.Google Scholar

page 89 note 4 CII, ii, p. 70.Google Scholar

page 89 note 5 CII, ii, p. 77.Google Scholar

page 89 note 6 Whitehead, , Catalogue of Coins in the Panjāb Museum, Lahore, Oxford, 1914, vol. i, plate xviii, 24.Google Scholar

page 89 note 7 Cambridge Shorter History of India, 1934, p. 74.Google Scholar

page 90 note 1 CII, ii, p. 81.Google Scholar

page 90 note 2 Acta Orientalia, xx, pp. 117–19.Google Scholar

page 91 note 1 Bégram, pp. 141–2.Google Scholar

page 91 note 2 Journal of the Bombay Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, xx, 1902, p. 386.Google Scholar

page 91 note 3 Lüders, H., A List of Brāhmī Inscriptions from the Earliest Times to about a. d. 400Google Scholar … (henceforth Lüders). Appendix to EI, x, Calcutta, 1912, no. 78.Google Scholar

page 92 note 1 Bégram, pp. 99100.Google Scholar

page 92 note 2 Ibid., pp. 100–1.

page 92 note 3 EI, viii, pp. 42 ff.Google Scholar

page 93 note 1 EI, ix, p. 244.Google Scholar

page 93 note 2 Cf. Ghosh, H. C., Indian Historical Quarterly, v, 1928, p. 80.Google Scholar

page 93 note 3 CII, ii, p. 165.Google Scholar

page 93 note 4 Bégram, pp. 101, 141.Google Scholar

page 93 note 5 EI, xix, p. 96.Google Scholar

page 94 note 1 Oxford History of India, pp. 130–1.Google Scholar

page 94 note 2 Bégram, p. 143.Google Scholar

page 94 note 3 Catalogue of the Museum of Archæology at Sānchī, Calcutta, 1922, pp. 3031.Google Scholar

page 94 note 4 Altekar, A. S. in New History of the Indian People, vol. vi, The, Gupta-Vākāṭaka Age, Lahore, 1946, pp. 48–9.Google Scholar

page 94 note 5 Further to this question see addendum, p. 97.

page 95 note 1 Bégram, pp. 107, 161.Google Scholar

page 97 note 1 Lüders, no. 30.Google Scholar

page 97 note 2 EI, i, p. 395.Google Scholar