Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c23: VIII. Kuṣana Coins

Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c23

Language: German

VIII. Kuṣana Coins

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§ 64. Definition. — As considerable confusion has sometimes arisen from an inaccurate use of the term 'Kuṣana', it should be borne in mind that it bears two distinct significations, according to the period of which it is used: — (1) the Kuṣanas were originally one of the five tribes of the Yueh-ti, who, by c. 120 B.C., had become the predominant power in Bactria and other neighbouring countries to the north of the Paropanisus; (2) c. 25 B.C., this particular tribe gained a supremacy over the other four tribes of Yueh-ti, and, from this time onwards, the word 'Kuṣana' is used to denote the whole Yueh-ti people united under their leadership. The first result of this unity of the previously separate and, perhaps, somewhat discordant forces of the Yueh-ti, was the conquest of the last remaining Greek kingdom in the Kabul valley under Hermaeus.

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SPECHT, JA. 1883 (II), p. 317; TH., Ind. Ant. 1886, p. 19; C.NChr. 1889, p. 269; 1892, p. 41. But see S. LÉVI, JA. 1897, p. 1 ff.

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§ 65. Hermaeus, Kujula Kadphises. — The numismatic evidence of the progress of this Kuṣana conquest of the kingdom of Hermaeus is complete. The coins show the following sequence: -- (1) Hermaeus alone (GARD. p. 62); (2) Kujula Kadphises associated with Hermaeus, i. e. *obv.* ΕΡΜΑΙΟΥ, *rev.* in Kharoṣṭhī *Kujula Kasasa* (**Plate II, 7**; cp. GARD. p. 120); (3) Kujula Kadphises alone, i. e. *obv.* ΚΟΖΟΛΟ ΚΑΔΦΙΖΟΥ, *rev.* Kujula Kasasa (**Plate II, 8**; cp. GARD. p. 122). Kujula Kadphises (= Kieu-tsieu-khio in Chinese) is said to have died at the age of 80, c. A.D. 10, and the conquest of India, i. e. the Panjab and the territory as far as the Jamna is ascribed to his successor (SPECHT, JA. 1883 (II), p. 325).

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§ 66. There is less certainty in regard to the coins which should be attributed to this second prince of the Kuṣana dynasty. By many writers he is identified with the prince whose coins, directly imitated from the denarii of Augustus of the years 4 B.C. — 2 A.D. (VON SALLET, ZfN. 1879, p. 378) are inscribed, *obv.* ΚΟΖΟΛΑ ΚΑΔΑΦΕϹ, *rev.* Kuyula Kaphsasa (**Plate II, 9**); cp. VON GUTSCH., Gesch. Ir. p. 136; GARD. p. XLVIII; DROUIN, Rev. Num. 1888, p. 46). C., however, supposes these coins of Roman type to be the issue of some particular mint of Kujula Kadphises, and explains the differences in the inscriptions as due to the difficulty of representing a Kuṣana name in either Greek or Kharoṣṭhī characters (NChr. 1892, p. 46).

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§ 67. The Nameless King. — This will, perhaps, be the most fitting place to discuss the attribution of the coins of 'the Nameless King', whose legends afford us only such information as is conveyed by the title BACIΛEYC BACIΛEYΩN (sic) CΩTHP MEΓAC, rarely accompanied by a Kharoṣṭhī translation (**Plate II, 10**; cp. GARD. p. 114). The extent of his dominion is shown by the fact that his coins are found in great numbers "all over the Panjab, as well as in Kandahar, and in the Kabul valley" (C.NChr. 1890, p. 115). From a consideration of the fabric and epigraphy of these coins certain tangible facts are deducible. They are connected, on the one hand, with those of Miaus (§ 35), by similarity of type, *rev.* Horseman, and by the use of the "reel and bead" border (cp. **Pl. II, 1 with 10**; C.NChr. 1890, Pl. XII, 1 with 4; GARD. Pl. XXIV, 7 with 6); and, on the other hand, with those of Hima Kadphises (§ 69), by the use of the nominative instead of the more

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DROUIN, Rev. Num. 1888, p. 23; C.NChr. 1892, p. 45, puts the date of Kujula Kadphises rather later, viz. c. B.C. 10, and regards Hima Kadphises as having immediately succeeded him, c. A.D. 30. For the Greek inscr. on coins of Hermaeus and Kujula Kadphises, v. RAPSON, JRAS. 1897, p. 319.

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usual genitive in the Greek inscriptions, by the use of the title σωτήρ μέγας, and by the similarity in form between certain letters both in the Greek and Kharoṣṭhī inscrr. (C. NChr. 1892, p. 71). Moreover, the Nameless King uses a symbol of the kind which is characteristic of Hima Kadphises and his successors; and, on a unique coin, published by C. (NChr. 1892, Pl. V, 14) there occurs a bust with two faces, and, in front of the faces, the symbols respectively of the Nameless King and Hima Kadphises (C. NChr. 1892, p. 71). It cannot be doubted that these two were nearly related in point of time; whether they were also connected as members of the same dynasty is not so certain. C. places the Nameless King among the Sakas (NChr. 1890, p. 114), but also suggests that these coins without a name may have been issued by the satraps of one of the early Kuṣana kings, perhaps of Hima Kadphises himself. VON GUTSCHMID (Gesch. Ir. p. 136), recognising the numismatic break which occurs between Kozola Kadaphes and the later Hima Kadphises, places the Nameless King in the interval, and regards him as an Indian prince — the Āgniveśya prince, who, according to the Gārgī Saṃhitā (KERN, Bṛhat-Saṃhitā 39) ruled over India for 20 years between two Saka dynasties. C., too, saw the feasibility of some such view and suggested that the Kharoṣṭhī *Vi*, which occurs on many of these coins (e. g. C. NChr. 1890, Pl. XII, 4) might be an abbreviation of *Vikramāditya* (l. c. p. 115). It must be pointed out, however, that, if any such identification of the Nameless King with Vikramāditya is possible, the Vikrama era, which begins with 57 B.C., must, if our chronology of this period is correct, be supposed to date from his birth.

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§ 68. Kujula Kara Kadphises. — This prince, who bears the Kuṣana title *Devaputra*, is supposed by C. to be the son of Kujula Kadphises, and the predecessor of Hima Kadphises.

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NChr. 1892, p. 65, Pl. IV, 9—13. In the chronological table on p. 45, he is, however, placed after Hima Kadphises and before Kaniṣka.

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Usually, however, it has been assumed that the coins bearing this form of the name are merely varieties of the coinage of Kujula Kadphises (v. sup. § 65); and, in favour of this assumption which allows them an earlier date, it may be pointed out that in type and execution they somewhat resemble those of Zeionises (v. sup. § 34; cp. GARD. Pl. XXIII, 5, Zeionises, with 7, Kujula Kara Kadphises).

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§ 69. Hima Kadphises. — The order of succession of the Indian Kuṣana monarchs from this point to the last quarter of the 2^nd cent. A.D. is certain. *Hima Kadphises* who has been identified with the Yen-kao-ching of the Chinese accounts (c. 30—78 A.D.; **Plate II, 11**) is connected with his successors as the first to issue the gold coinage, which is continued by the Guptas after the supremacy of Northern India had passed into their hands in the 4^th cent. A.D. With the exception of two or three gold coins of Eucratides (Rev. Num. 1867, p. 382; NChr. 1892, p. 37, Pl. III, 11), one of Menander (C. coll., now in B.M.) and, perhaps, one of Taxila (C. CAI. Pl. II, 18), and another coin of uncertain attribution (GARD. p. 162, Pl. XXIX, 15, v. sup. § 37 (1)), no specimens which can possibly have been struck in India, during the two centuries previous to the date of Hima Kadphises, are to be found in the collections of the present day. The large gold coinage of the Kuṣanas has been attributed to the influx of Roman gold to India at this period.

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§ 70. Certain it is that the Roman weight-standard (*aureus* = 124 grains

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C. NChr. 1888, p. 219, and the passage of Pliny there quoted, Hist. Nat. XII, 41 (18).

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or 8,035 grammes) was adopted in India at this time. Pieces of the weight of two aurei were only struck by Hima Kadphises; the largest gold coins of his successors are aurei.

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For a table of the weights of these and later Kuṣana gold coins, v. C.CMI. p. 16.

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§ 71. The coin-legends of Hima Kadphises are both in Greek and Kharoṣṭhī. Those of his three next successors are in Greek only. Afterwards, Nāgarī letters and monograms are used instead of the Greek inscriptions which had ceased to be intelligible (v. inf. § 74).

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For coins of Hima Kadphises with unusual Kharoṣṭhī inscrr., v. HOERNLE, Proc. BA. 1895, p. 82.

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§ 72. Kaniṣka, Huviṣka, Vāsudeva. -- The Śaka era has usually been supposed to date from the *abhiṣeka* of *Kaniṣka* at Mathurā in 78 A.D. (OLDENBERG, ZfN. 1881, p. 292 = Ind. Ant. 1881, p. 214); and to this era the dates found in the stone inscrr. of *Kaniṣka*, *Huviṣka*, and *Vāsudeva*, have usually been referred. If this supposition be correct, the known dates will be as follows: — Kaniṣka, years 7—28 = A.D. 85—106; Huviṣka, years 33—64 = A.D. 111—142; Vāsudeva, years 74—98 = A.D. 152—176.

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C.NChr. 1892, p. 49. It used to be supposed that Vāsudeva's inscriptional dates began much earlier, so as to make the first part of his reign coincident with the last part of Huviṣka's (cp. GARD. p. LI; DROUIN, Rev. Num. 1888, p. 38); but C. (l. c.) suggests that this may be due to a misreading of the decimal figure 70 as 40. Coins of Huviṣka with inscrr. in Brāhmī characters: SMITH, JBA. 1897, p. 3.

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C., however, reasoning from the fact that Kaniṣka was a Kuṣana and *not* a Saka king (v. sup. § 64), seeks another origin for the Saka era (he supposes it to have been founded by Caṣṭana, v. inf. § 80), and explains the Kuṣana dates as being of the Seleucid era (B.C. 312), with the hundreds omitted (e. g. year 7 = 407 Seleucid = 95 A.D.). This procedure would make all the Kuṣana dates, as given above, 10 years later. C. justifies it by referring to the fact that the Kuṣanas use the Macedonian, and not the Indian, names of the months in their inscrr. (NChr. 1892, p. 44); compare also BHĀṆḌĀRKAR (Hist. Dek. p. 26 f.). Regarding another possibility, viz. that the dates of Kaniṣka and his successors have to be referred to the second century of the era, used by Śoḍāsa, Liako Kusuluka and others, see WZKM. IX, p. 173 f.

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§ 73. Religious emblems. — As illustrating the religious history of this period, the coins of Kaniṣka and Huviṣka are important. They show a remarkable eclecticism; for on their reverses are represented Greek and Scythic divinities, deities of the Avesta and of the Vedas, and Buddha.

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§ 74. Later Great Kuṣanas. — After the death of Vāsudeva, c. 180 A.D., the gold and copper coinage of the Kuṣanas continues, but the Greek inscrr. no longer afford any information. They are mechanically repeated and rapidly become debased and illegible. Two or three isolated Nāgarī letters or monograms are usually found on the reverse of the coins. These were, no doubt, at the time, significant abbreviations, but all hope for their interpretation now lies in further discoveries of inscrr. of this period. These coins probably

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For the coins of the Early Great Kuṣanas: C.NChr. 1892, p. 63, Pll. IV---VIII; id. p. 98, Pll. IX--XIV; GARD. pp. XLVIII, 120, Pll. XXV—XXIX; VON SALLET, ZfN. 1879, p. 377. Cp. also Ar. Ant. p. 347, Pl. X. For the chronology: DROUIN, Rev. Num. 1888, pp. 8. 185; VON GUTSCH., Gesch. Ir. pp. 136. 164. Kuṣana modifications of the Greek alphabet: STEIN, Baby. and Or. Rec. 1887, p. 155; C. id. 1888, p. 40. Divinities represented on the coins: STEIN op. c. = Ind. Ant. 1888, p. 89; C.NChr. 1892, pp. 61. 128; TH.JRAS. 1877, p. 209; ,HOFFMANN, Abh. f. d. K. des Morg. 1881, p. 139; GARD. p. LX; RAPSON, JRAS. 1897, p. 322, for the reading OHÞO as a name of Śiva.

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constituted the currency of both the Kabul Valley and the Panjāb during the long period from 180 a.d. to c. 425 a.d., the date of the settlement of Kidāra Shāh in Gandhāra (§ 76). Within these limits the relative age of different classes may be determined by their nearness to or remoteness from the originals from which they were copied. Thus C.’s class A (NChr. 1893, p. 115, Pl. VIII) on which the names of Kaniṣka or Vāsudeva can still be read, is, no doubt, older than his class B (id. p. 120, Pl. IX) on which only a few vestiges of the Greek letters remain. A criterion of locality may also be applied:—(1) the coins bearing ΟηþΟ on the *rev.*, with type, Śiva and his bull Nandi (**Plate II, 13**) derived from the earlier Kuṣaṇa types of Vāsudeva (**Plate II, 12**) belong rather to the Kabul Valley: they were imitated by the Scytho-Sassanians (§ 75); (2) those with ΑΡΔΟΧþΟ, and type, seated goddess (**Plate II, 14**), belong rather to the more eastern portion of the Kuṣaṇa dominions: they were imitated by the Kidāra Kuṣaṇas (§ 76) and by the Guptas (§ 91; C.NChr. 1893, p. 115 — by an error in his mode of statement, he seems to mean the opposite). This type is probably also derived from the earlier Kuṣaṇas (e. g. Gard. Pl. XXVI, 18: Kaniṣka). This is, however, not certain, as all the coins attributed to the earlier Kuṣaṇas which bear this type have a late appearance, and it is possible that they may all have been struck by the later Great Kuṣaṇas who mechanically repeated the names of their predecessors in the Greek inscr. on the *obv.*

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C.NChr. 1893, p. 112, Pll. VIII—X. Cp. also Th., Ind. Ant. 1883, p. 6; Smith, JBA. 1897, p. 3. For a coin which seems to combine a Kuṣaṇa *obv.* with a Sassanian *rev.*, v. Smith, op. cit. p. 5.

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*§ 75. Scytho-Sassanians.* — These coins come generally from the districts on the Oxus, to the north of the Paropanisus; but, as they are also occasionally found in the Kabul Valley and are, probably, the result of invasions into this district (§ 115), they call for a short notice here (**Plate II, 15**). Their limits of date are approximately fixed by the following data: --(1) Some of the earliest specimens bear the head-dress and name of the Sassanian king, Hormazd II (a.d. 301--310), who married a daughter of the Kuṣaṇa king of Kabul; (2) the later limit (a.d. 450) marks the date at which the territories on the Oxus were wrested from the Sassanians by the Ephthalites (C.NChr. 1893, p. 169). The date of the different coins is, in most cases, fixed, as they usually bear the head-dress of the contemporary Sassanian monarch, together with his name and titles in a debased form of the Greek alphabet.

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C.NChr. 1893, p. 166, Pl. XIII. XIV.

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According to this view this class of coins was issued by Sassanian conquerors of the Yueh-ti whose territory lay to the north of the Paropanisus.

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Another view is that of Drouin who regards them as coins of the Yueh-ti (Kuṣaṇas) themselves, and explains the occurence of Sassanian names and head-dresses, by supposing that both were borrowed by these Yueh-ti as a consequence of their long friendly alliance with the Sassanian monarchy. According to this view, therefore, these coins are of the Later Great Kuṣaṇas; and are distinguished from those treated of in § 74 only as being the issue of a different district comprising a portion of the extreme north of India and also Arachosia and Bactriana on the other side of the Paropanisus.

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Drouin, Rev. Num. 1896, p. 154, Pl. V.

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*§ 76. Kidāra or Little Kuṣaṇas.* - - From Chinese sources (Specht, JA. 1883 (II), p. 328) we learn that Ki-to-lo, the leader of the Great Yueh-ti, who has been identified by C. (NChr. 1893, p. 184) with the Kidāra of the coins, being hard pressed by the Ephthalites, crossed over the Paropanisus and established in Gandhāra — the Kabul Valley and Panjāb — the kingdom of the Little Yueh-ti. The date of this invasion is approximately fixed at a.d. 425, as the Ephthalites, some time afterwards, sustained a signal defeat at the hands of Varahrān V, a.d. 428. The other limit, 475 a.d., marks the conquest of Gandhāra by the Ephthalites. The Kidāra Kuṣaṇas seem to have retired "to the north, into Chitrāl and Gilgit to the west of the Indus, and to Pakhali and Kashmir to the east of the river" (C.NChr. 1893, p. 187). Their power can be traced in the coinage of Kashmir (§ 112), and their kingdom was again established on the Upper Indus after the defeat of the Hūṇa Mihirakula (v. inf. § 107), and lasted until, in the 9^th cent. a.d., a revolution placed a Brāhman dynasty on the throne (v. inf. § 115). The coins of the Kidāra Kuṣaṇas have as their *rev.* type the seated goddess, which characterises class (2) of the coins of the later Great Kuṣaṇas (§ 74). This fact suggests their attribution to Kashmir rather than to Gandhāra. They bear on the *obv.* the name Kidāra, the founder of the dynasty, and on the *rev.* the name of the ruling sovereign (**Plate II, 16**).

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C.NChr. 1893, p. 184, Pl. XV; Proc. BA. 1888, p. 205. For the chronology and ethnology: Drouin, ja. 1891, (XVII), p. 146 = Rev. Num. 1891, p. 219; he. p. 14, from the Muséon, 1895; Gutsch., Gesch. Ir. p. 168.

Linked texts (1)

Naturalis historia — C. Plinius Secundus, Latin