Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c20.10

c20.10

**§ 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.