Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c23.31

c23.31

*§ 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**).