Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c20: V. Scythic Invaders of India
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c20
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V. Scythic Invaders of India
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**§ 26.** The chronological difficulties of the history of Northern India during the last two centuries B.C. are not, however, confined to the Greek dynasties. The coins bear witness to the existence, during this period, of two well-defined dynasties of Scythic origin, of other Scythic powers less clearly marked, and of a number of native Hindu states.
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**§ 27.** The Śaka invasion. — The history of these Scythic tribes which came in contact with the Greek kingdoms in Bactria and India is known from Chinese sources.
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For a list of these: DROUIN, Rev. Num. 1888, p. 13.
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For a consideration of their numismatic remains, the following main dates and facts will be sufficient.
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At the time of the establishment of the Bactrian monarchy, the territories to the north — Sogdiana and Transoxiana — were occupied by a tribe called the Sse (or Sek), who had come from the south of China.
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These Sse have usually been identified with the Śakas, who, in previous ages, had come into conflict with the Achaemenid and Macedonian powers. In B.C. 165, the Sse were expelled from Sogdiana by the Yueh-chi, who were themselves flying before the Hiung-nu. The Śakas, thus dispossessed, invaded Bactria. From this period until the fall of the Bactrian monarchy, the Greeks had to contend against both Parthians and Śakas, while the Parthian and Śakas were alternately the friends and foes of one another. It is, perhaps, to this association with the Parthians that the earliest Śaka coins of India owe certain Parthian characteristics (v. inf. § 29). The Yueh-chi, who now held the ancient territories of the Śakas, in turn invaded and gained complete possession of Bactria, c. 120 B.C. This was no doubt the immediate cause of the first Śaka invasions of India. About a century later, or c. 25 B.C., one of the five tribes of the Yueh-chi, the Kuṣaṇas, gained the supremacy over the others, crossed over the Paropanisus, destroyed the last vestiges of Greek rule in the Kabul Valley, and subsequently conquered the whole of Northern India.
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SPECHT, JA. 1883, p. 317 (cp. Ind. Ant. 1886, p. 19); DROUIN, Rev. Num. 1891, p. 217 = JA. 1891 (XVII), p. 145. But see S. LÉVI, JA. 1897, p. 1 ff.
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**§ 28.** Śaka imitations of older coins. — To the period of Śaka rule in Bactria belong the barbarous imitations of Macedonian, Seleucid, Bactrian, and Parthian coins. These coins are, in general, mere imitations, and their inscriptions are debased copies of the Greek inscriptions; but on a few specimens there are legends which have been recognised as the most ancient examples of the Aramaean writing of Turkestan (**Plate I, 18. 19**, *Euthydemus*: a Bactrian original, and a Śaka copy).
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C.NChr. 1889, p. 301, Pl. XIII; DROUIN, Rev. Num. 1891, p. 222; 1894, p. 174; id. Rev. Sémitique 1893, p. 173; C.CAI. p. 35; PE. I, p. 30.
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**§ 29.** Maues, Moa. — The earliest of the Śaka dynasties in India is that of *Maues* or *Moa*, who is probably to be identified with the Moga of the Taxila copper-plate grant (BÜHLER, EI. IV, p. 54; Bh.JRAS. 1894, p. 551). His date is probably not later than c. 120 B.C. This agrees with the fabric of his coins, which are superior in workmanship to those of the later Greek princes, and with the fact that some of them are directly imitated from the coins of the earlier Greek princes, e. g. Demetrius and Apollodotus (**Plate I, 14,** imitated from Demetrius, GARD., Pl. III, 2). The form of inscription used by Maues — ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ ΜΕΓΑΛΟΥ — (**Plate I, 15**) is of Parthian origin (v. sup. § 13), and first occurs on the coins of Mithradates I (c. B.C. 171—138). The coins of the dynasty of Maues are found in the Panjab only — particularly in the N.W. — and *not* in Afghanistan (C.NChr. 1890, p. 104). It has accordingly been conjectured (GARD. p. XLI; DROUIN, Rev. Num. 1888, p. 20; and JA. 1891 (XVII), p. 146 = Rev. Num. 1891, p. 219) that this band of Śakas, unlike other foreign invaders, entered India by the Karakoram Pass, and passed through Kashmir into the Panjab. C., however, denies the possibility of this, and supposes that, after the Śaka occupation of Arachosia and Drangiana — the country afterwards called Śakasthāna — a detachment under the leadership of Maues passed thence into Sind and up the valley of the Indus.
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C.NChr. 1890, p. 103; GARD. p. 68, Pl. XVI; VON SALLET, ZfN. 1879, p. 334; 1882, p. 161; 1883, p. 159. Cp. also Ar. Ant. p. 300; JBA. 1840, p. 1008; NChr. 1861, p. 72; PE. II, p. 200.
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**§ 30. Vonones.** — Nearly allied to the dynasty of Maues is that of *Vonones* (**Plate I, 17:** Vonones and Spalagādama), the coins of which are found in the country around Kandahar and Ghazni, the ancient Arachosia, and in Seistan, the ancient Drangiana. The Parthian appearance of the names of these princes is most striking; and, consequently, the term Indo-Parthian has sometimes been applied to them. In support of their Parthian origin may also be adduced the fact that the same territory was, in the 1st cent. A.D., governed by an undoubtedly Parthian dynasty — that of Gondophares (§ 61) to which, in this article, the designation Indo-Parthian is restricted. At the same time, it is certain that the dynasties of Maues and Vonones were intimately connected, and it is difficult to separate them so far as to call the former Śaka and the latter Parthian. The difficulty is, perhaps, to be explained by supposing the existence among the Śakas of this period of a strong Parthian element due to previous events.
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**§ 31. Vonones, Azes.** — As Vonones strikes coins together with Azes, the successor of Maues, his date is probably, c. 100 B.C. What the exact relations between these two ruling families of Śakas or Śaka-Parthians were, it is unpossible to say; but it is noticeable that, whenever they strike coins in common, the members of Vonones' family invariably occupy the obverse, and the members of Maues' family the reverse. To judge from other analogous instances in ancient numismatics, this fact would seem to show that the former exercised some sort of lordship over the latter.
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It would seem probable, that, while the dynasty of Vonones ruled over Arachosia and Drangiana (Śakasthāna), and the dynasty of Maues over the valley of the Indus (i. e. both W. Panjab and Sind) with its capital at Taxila, the E. Panjab (capital Śākala), and the Kabul valley, were still, for the most part, governed by Greek princes (C.NChr. 1890, p. 109).
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C.NChr. 1890, p. 106, Pl. VII.
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**§ 32. Satraps of Mathurā.** — As Śaka satraps must probably also be classed the Satraps of Mathurā (or Northern Kṣatrapas), probably of the second half of the 1st cent. B.C., on whose history so much light has been thrown by the inscriptions on the Mathurā Lion Capital (Bhagvānlāl Indraji, ed. BÜHLER, JRAS. 1894, p. 525), and other inscriptions from the same neighbourhood (BÜHLER, EI. II, p. 195).
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For their coins: C.CAI. p. 85, Pl. VIII; and BH. ed. RAPSON, JRAS. 1894, p. 541. Cp. also JBA. 1854, p. 679; PE. II, p. 223; SMITH, JBA. 1897, p. 9, Pl. I, 15.
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§ 33. **Rañjubula.** — Important chronological data for the period of these satraps of Mathurā are the following:— (1) the first satrap, *Rañjubula* (**Plate II, 5**) who is undoubtedly the Rājula of the Lion Capital, strikes a coinage directly imitated from that of the Greek prince Strato II (**Plate II, 4**), (2) the Great Satrap Kusulaa Patika of the Lion Capital is almost certainly to be identified with the Satrap Patika, son of Liaka Kusuluka, of the somewhat earlier Taxila copper-plate grant, dated in the 78th year of the Great King Moga (v. supr. § 29, BÜHLER, EI. IV, p. 54, and BH. JRAS. 1894, p. 552). Another class of the coins of Rañjubula, on which the name is written Rājubula in Brāhmī characters (**Plate II, 6**), and the coins of the Satraps of Mathurā generally are related as regards both types and fabric to those of Pañcāla (Śuṅgas) and those of the Hindu princes of Mathurā (v. inf. §§ 52. 53).
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§ 34. **Other Śaka Satraps.** — The attribution of certain other classes of Scythic coins previous to the period of Kuṣaṇa supremacy is, at present, more doubtful. Some of these are imitated from the coins of the successors of Maues — Azes and Azilises; and, as they bear the title 'satrap', they were very probably struck by satraps of this dynasty. The date of one of these, the Satrap *Zeionises* (Jihonisa, **Plate II, 3**), son of the Satrap Manigula is probably as early as 80 B.C. (C. NChr. 1890, pp. 125. 168, Pl. XV, 1, 4ª). Of a similar date is *Aspavarma*, son of Indravarma, the *strategos* of Azes (id. pp. 126. 169; but v. also inf. § 61), and a ruler, whose name has not yet been discovered and who is only known at present as the son of Vijayamitra (id. pp. 127. 170). Somewhat later are the badly executed coins of *Kharamosta*, son of Artas (id.).
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For the suggested identification of this *Kharamosta* with the *Kharaosta* of the Mathurā Lion Capital, v. BÜHLER's note JRAS. 1894, p. 533.
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§ 35. **Doubtful Classes.** — The precise nationality of the following Scythic princes, whose coins seem all to belong to the latter half of the 1st cent. B.C., is uncertain.
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*Miaus* or *Heraus* (**Plate II, 1**), the former reading of the name being that which was finally adopted by C. (NChr. 1888, p. 47). Formerly the Śaka nationality of this ruler was accepted, and a portion of the legend on his tetradrachms was read ΣΑΚΑ ΚΟΙΡΑΝΟΥ, 'prince of the Śakas' (GARD. p. xlvii). OLDENBERG read ΣΑΚΑ-ΚΟΡΡΑΝΟΥ, 'the Śaka-Kuṣaṇa', regarding the Kuṣaṇas as a *family* of the Śakas (cp. the title of Kaniṣka, *Guṣanavaṁśa-saṁvarddhaka*), and the Śakas and Yueh-ti as either the same people, or the Śakas as one of the tribes of the Yueh-ti (ZfN. 1881, p. 295 = Ind. Ant. 1881, p. 215). Thomas read the first part of the legend as ΣΑΝΑΒ or ΣΑΝΑΣ, and regarded the first three letters as an abbreviation of the word *saṁvatsara*, the fourth as the Greek numeral = 1, and the last as, perhaps, denoting some particular mint (JRAS. 1883, p. 75). C. read ΣΑΝΑΒ or ΣΑΝΑΟΒ, and ΚΟΡΡΑΝΟΥ or ΚΟΡΣΑΝΟΥ, comparing the legend of the oboli, which is distinctly ΜΙΑΟΥ ΚΟΡΣΑΝΟΥ, and translated 'the Kuṣaṇa prince', supposing the first word to be the equivalent of a Scythic royal title *Tsanyu* or *Chanyu* = the title *devaputra* used by the Kuṣaṇas in their inscriptions (NChr. 1888, p. 47; 1890, p. 155). He also suggested that this Miaus may be the adventurer *Yin-mo-fu*, to whom the Chinese attribute the conquest of Kipin in B.C. 49 (RÉMUSAT, Nouv. Mélanges Asiat. I, p. 207; C. NChr. 1888, p. 51). The silver coins, tetradrachms and obols, bear legends in Gk. only. It is doubtful whether the attribution of a bilingual (Greek and Kharoṣṭhī) copper coin to Miaus (C. NChr. 1888, Pl. III, 13) can be supported. If so, its evidence would prove that Miaus ruled territory to the *south* of the Hindu Kush. This view is strengthened by the fact that all the obols were found in W. Afghanistan (C. op. cit. p. 50. For the opposite view, v. GARD. p. XLVIII and inf. § 36).
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For the characteristic differences between the coins of Śakas and Kuṣaṇas, the discussion of which bears on the question of the nationality of Miaus, v. C.NChr. 1889, p. 294.
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§ 36. The obols of Miaus are similar, both in fabric and in portraiture, to the coins of Hyrcodes (**Plate II, 2**), which seem undoubtedly not to have been struck on the Indian side of the Paropanisus, but to belong to the class of coins struck by the Kuṣaṇas or Yueh-ti in Bactria at some time subsequent to their settlement there c. 120 B.C. To the same class belong also the coins of Sapaleizes, which bear the name of the goddess Nannaia whose effigy so frequently occurs on the coins of the Kuṣaṇas — Kaniṣka, Huviṣka, and Vāsudeva.
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C.NChr. 1889, p. 303; GARD. pp. XLVIII, 117, Pl. XXIV, 8—16.
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**§ 37.** No adequate explanation has been given of the following:--
(1) The gold piece published in GARD. p. 162, Pl. XXIX, 15, and classed as Indo-Scythic, Uncertain. It is possible that this piece, which differs in important respects from all known coins, may be a reproduction in gold of the designs of two seals or gems.
(2) The thick piece of silver formerly belonging to General MALCOLM G. CLERK and now in the British Museum. This is said to have come from the Oxus country, and bears characters which have not yet been satisfactorily explained. It is possibly only a modern fabrication, or it may have been intended for use as a charm or ornament.
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Proc. ASB. 1884, p. 127; id. 1885, p. 3.
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**§ 38. Indo-Chinese coins.** — Copper coins found in the neighbourhood of Kashgar (J. R. Geogr. Soc. XLVII, p. 12) bearing inscrr. in both Indian (Kharoṣṭhī) and Chinese characters, show an extension to this region of some Indian power -- perhaps Greek or Śaka. The Chinese inscrr. have reference to the weight or value of the coins. The Kharoṣṭhī inscrr. on the few known specimens are incomplete, but certainly contain fragments of the names of more than one ruler. All the suggested attributions of these coins to known Greek or Śaka kings are merely conjectural.
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§ 39. This branch of Indian numismatics has only recently received any systematic treatment, and is still so full of difficulties, that the most convenient plan here will be to give in alphabetical order a list of those states whose earliest coins can, with any probability, be included within the wide limits given above.
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§ 40. Almora. — There are three specimens, found near Almora, and now in the B. M., which are different in fabric from every other known Indian coinage. They appear to be of some alloy of silver and are heavier than any other Indian coins. Two of them bear in large Brāhmī characters, probably of a date between the 1^st cent. B.C. and the 2^nd cent. A.D., the names Sivadata and Sivapāli[ta]. The *rev.* type — a Caitya-railing — is
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TERRIEN DE LACOUPERIE, Comptes rendus de l'Acad. des Inscrr. 1890, p. 338 (rev. Rev. Num. 1890, p. 256); GARD., NChr. 1879, p. 274 (appendix on geog., HOWORTH p. 279); GARD. p. 172, no. 4.