A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c11.s1.3

c11.s1.3

As I have occasion to observe more than once, the chronology of the Kushān dynasty is still unsettled, and decisive proof is lacking for any one of the many rival theories on the subject. Six sovereigns of the dynasty are of importance for the history of India and of Indian art. The first two are most conveniently cited as Kadphises I and II. The next four kings, Kanishka, Vāsishka, Huvishka, and Vāsudeva I, certainly reigned in that order for a century in round numbers.² As a working hypothesis I revert to Professor Oldenberg's old theory, and assume that Kanishka came to the throne in A. D. 78. Thus the first and second centuries after Christ are approximately filled by the rule of the leading kings of the dynasty, the name of which may be given to the period up to about A. D. 300, because the next principal dynasty, the Gupta, did not begin until A. D. 320. The sculpture at Amarāvatī, although in a southern locality, is closely related to that of the north, and may be conveniently treated under a classification based on the reigns of a northern dynasty. From the far south we have no certain sculpture of the period, and there is little, if any, in Ceylon which can be assigned to it. I have doubtfully inserted the Jain images from the Cuddapah District, Madras, in this chapter.