Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c24.s3.3

c24.s3.3

§ 83. Dates on Kṣatr. Coins. — The inscriptional dates begin with the year 72 of Rudradāman's Junāgaḍh inscr. (v. sup. § 80). The coin-dates (**Plate III**, 3; Dāmasena, date 153) begin with the year 100, in the reign of the 5^th satrap, Jīvadāman, and continue regularly to the end of the dynasty. The last known dates are those of Rudrasiṁha, 310, and of his sister's son Siṁhasena, 304 (BH.JRAS. 1890, p. 662; C.CMI. p. 4). In determining the era to which these dates should be referred, it should be borne in mind that they probably do not mark the extreme limits of the dynasty. In the period of confusion, when the kingdom of the satraps was falling to pieces before the attacks of the Guptas, it is at least possible that no coins may have been struck. The earliest coins of the Guptas struck in this part of India have, unfortunately, no dates which have as yet been read with certainty (SMITH, JRAS. 1889, p. 123); but it is certain that the Gupta conquest took place in the latter part of the reign of Candragupta Vikramāditya (c. A.D. 380—414, SMITH, JRAS. 1893, p. 82). If, therefore, the coin-dates of these satraps be referred to the Śaka era, 78 A.D., the latest known date 310 = A.D. 388, would fall well within the reign of Candragupta; and there would seem to be no sufficient reason for the alternative which has been suggested by OLDENBERG (ZfN. 1881, p. 318 = Ind. Ant. 1881, p. 224), viz. that these dates should be referred to an independent satrapal era beginning c. 100 A.D.