History of Indian and Eastern Architecture v1.c8.s7: Kânwâyana Dynasty, B.C. 70 to 36.

v1.c8.s7.1

History affords us little beyond the lengths of the kings' reigns for the next two dynasties, and we are obliged to trust to the general correctness with which these are recorded in the Purânas, and by degrees we are collecting inscriptions, and we know of caves that belong to their time, so that we may hope to breathe life into what has hitherto appeared only a dry list of names. Possibly the Kânwâs had usurped the power of the Sungas, so that the two families may have been nominally contemporary during the period assigned to the latter, and that both came to an end about 40 B.C. Anyhow we know that the Andhras had risen to power on the decline of the Mauryas. These dynasties were not, however, apparently known to the Greeks, and possibly, being Buddhist, are passed over in comparative silence in the Purânas. It is thus only from their monuments that we can hope to recover their history. Up to the present time, the most important inscription discovered is that of a prince Dhanabhûti who "in the time of the Sungas" erected a gateway at the Bharaut stûpa.