[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Archaeology, epigraphy and coins](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy) › [The Chronology of India, from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899) › c5 # The Chronology of India, from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century c5: The Chronology of India The Chronology of India, from the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Sixteenth Century c5 - **Language:** English ### The Chronology of India ### [c5.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.2) IN the present work it is proposed to collect and tabulate systematically those dates in the civil and literary history of India which have been ascertained by scientific research up to the present time. The accumulation of material treating of Indian chronology, scattered as it is through hundreds of volumes and periodicals, both English and foreign, necessitates some work which—while organizing the results arrived at—serves at the same time as an index to the sources from which these are drawn. ### [c5.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.3) As is well known, the literature of the Hindus, extensive and valuable as it is, contains scarcely any works of a historical character. For a trustworthy chronology of India we are, therefore, mainly dependent on the testimony of coins and inscriptions. Where these fail us, as in the early history of the country, we are thrown back on conjectures and inferences which are always liable to be modified or upset by future discovery. To Sir William Jones we owe the identification of the Sandrokottos or Sandrokoptos of the Greek writers with Chandragupta, the founder of the Maurya dynasty, whose date, B.C. 315, affords a starting-point from which, with the aid of Singhalese and other Buddhist records eked out by Pauranic tradition, it is possible to reconstruct with some degree of success an outline of the history of Upper India between the sixth and third centuries B.C. For the long period lying between Aśoka and the Muhammadan invasions under Maḥmūd of Ghaznī, our information is drawn almost entirely from coins and inscriptions, supplemented occasionally by the notices of contemporary writers, native and foreign. In some cases, notably in those of Kashmir and Gujarāt, we find trustworthy materials for a definite chronology in the records of the native chroniclers. ### [c5.4](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.4) Of the period of Graeco-Baktrian rule our knowledge is of the most fragmentary kind. To many of the kings whose names have come down to us, it is impossible to do more than assign an approximate date. The same uncertainty exists with regard to the history of the various tribes which supplanted the Greek kings in Baktria and Northern India, though Chinese records throw some light on the movements of the Yueh-ti, the Kushaṇa branch of which established so powerful a dominion in Northern India under Kozulo Kadphises. With Kanishka, the successor of this king, we touch firmer ground, as it is now generally agreed that the dates in the reigns of himself and his successors are to be referred to the Śaka era. ### [c5.5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.5) For the Western Kshatrapas of Mālava and Gujarāt we have a continuous chronology, derived chiefly from coins dated almost certainly in the same era, while a few synchronisms between them and the Andhrabhṛityas help to fix approximately the period of the later members of this dynasty. ### [c5.6](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.6) From the fourth century onwards coins and inscriptions on stone and copper-plates become much more numerous. Their importance for the elucidation and reconstruction of Indian history has been recognized ever since the first epigraphical and numismatic discoveries of Orientalists a century ago. But subjected to the critical and scientific methods of modern research, they have yielded a harvest of results undreamed of by the pioneers of Oriental learning. Nor is the field as yet exhausted, for scarcely a month passes without adding fresh data to our store of chronological material. ### [c5.7](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.7) The blanks left in Indian history by the absence of all authentic records have been, to some extent, filled by the information gleaned from the notices of foreign writers. Setting aside those of Greek origin, our most important authorities in this respect are the Chinese. The Travels of Fa-Hien, Hiuen-Tsang, and I-tsing have supplied many important data for the periods to which they belong, while the minute and careful State records of the Chinese have not only given us valuable details as to the history of the barbarous Scythian tribes, whose movements on the northern frontier of India in the first century of our era would otherwise be so obscure, but have further preserved to us the names of numerous Śramaṇas who visited China in the interests of Buddhism; ### [c5.8](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.8) as well as notices of embassies between China and India, all bearing witness to the close intercourse maintained between the two countries. ### [c5.9](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.9) For the Guptas who overthrew the Kshatrapas about the end of the fourth century, we have a definite chronology derived from numerous coins and inscriptions, enabling us to fix within very narrow limits the reigns of the different sovereigns. ### [c5.10](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.10) From this time onwards our chronological materials become more ample. The dates of the Gurjaras of Bharoch, of the Valabhī kings, and of the Early Chālukya dynasty are known from epigraphical sources, while a few facts of Pallava history have been gleaned by means of synchronisms between Early Chālukya and Pallava kings. ### [c5.11](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.11) The seventh century opens with the supremacy of Harshavardhana, or Śīlāditya of Kanauj, the epoch of whose era is now fixed for the year A.D. 606. The same period saw the disruption of the Early Chālukya kingdom into an Eastern and a Western branch, both of which have left numerous dated inscriptions, supplying not only a definite chronology but many details throwing light on their relations with other kingdoms. ### [c5.12](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.12) The chronology of the Paramāra dynasty in Mālava, from the early part of the ninth century, is derived largely from inscriptions, though here, as elsewhere in the later history of India, contemporary literature has added its quota. Similarly Hemādri’s \*Vratakhaṇḍa\* has supplemented the data drawn from other sources as to the Early Yādavas and their successors at Devagiri. ### [c5.13](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.13) The inscriptions of the Pālas of Bengal who rose to power about the middle of the same century are, for the most part, dated in regnal years. Their chronology must, therefore, remain for the present an open question. For the Chandellas, the Kalachuris of Chedi, the Chaulukyas of Aṇhilvāḍ, and other dynasties of the tenth and following centuries, materials for fixing a definite chronology are abundant. ### [c5.14](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.14) With the rise of the Muhammadan dominion in India in the beginning of the eleventh century, a change takes place in the character of our sources of information. Instead of being restricted to solitary fragments of history, drawn from the meagre records of a copper-plate or an inscription, we have copious accounts of contemporary events from the pens of historians who have at least a chronological instinct, if occasionally they fail in accuracy as regards individual dates. ### [c5.15](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.15) For the history of the native kingdoms during this period inscriptions continue to be our chief source of information. ### [c5.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.16) With regard to the literary chronology of India our knowledge of even approximate dates is, in the early period, very vague. From the seventh century onwards it becomes possible, however, by aid of synchronisms, contemporary notices, and internal evidence, to fix fairly definitely the period of some of the more famous writers of the time. Later on we have the extensive chronological material supplied by Bhandārkār, Bühler, and Peterson, in the reports of their tours in search of Sanskrit MSS. ### [c5.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.17) While referring the reader to the Preface for a full explanation of the method of arrangement adopted in the following tables, it should perhaps be stated here that those dates in them which are printed in italics represent such as are only approximately correct, being based on inferences which, though more or less reliable in the present state of our knowledge, may have to yield to any fresh evidence that future research may bring to bear upon them. ### [c5.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.18) | B.C. | | | 3102 | Friday, February 18, the beginning of the Kaliyuga or Hindu astronomical era, on the 588,466th day of the Julian Period. It is often used in dates, and precedes the Vikrama Saṃvat by 3044 years and the Śaka era by 3179 years. | | 3076 | K.Y. 26, Chaitra Śudi 1, initial date assigned to the Laukika or Saptarshi era, traditionally used in Kashmir. It reckons by cycles of a hundred years, and the first year of each coincides with the 27th current year of the Kaliyuga century, or the 47th of the Śakakāla, that is, nearly with the 25th year of an A.D. century.—BKR. 59. \*Rājataranginī\*, i, 52. IA. xx, 149. | | 557 | Siddhārtha, afterwards Gautama the Buddha, born at Kapilavastu. | | 528 | Siddhārtha leaves Kapilavastu and becomes an ascetic. | | 527 | Death of Mahāvīra Vardhamāna Jñātaputra, founder of the Nirgrantha or Jaina sect, being 470 years before the Vikrama era according to the Śvetāmbara Jains, and 605 years before the | ### [c5.19](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.19) 527 Śaka era according to the Digambaras. Jaina tradition gives also the dates 545 and 467 B.C. for this event, but the latter year is at variance with Buddhist tradition which states that Mahāvīra died during Buddha’s lifetime.—Kalpasūtra of Bhadrabāhu, ed. Jacobi, Abhandlungen für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, Bd. vii, Int. 7 ff., or SBE. xxii, Int. x ff. Bühler, Secte der Jaina, 38. IA. viii, 30; xv, 143. ### [c5.20](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.20) 515 Dareios Hystaspēs sends Skylax, of Karyanda, between B.C. 515 and 509, to explore the course of the Indus. Skylax, starting from Kaspatyros in the district of Paktyikē, navigates the river, and returns by the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea. He is said to have written an account of his voyage, of which possibly a few fragments remain. About this same period Dareios subdues the races dwelling on the right bank of the Indus, north of the Kābul river, the “Northern Indians” of Herodotos. The inscription of Dareios at Persepolis mentions Harauvatis, Idhus, and Gandhāra as subject to him. The inhabitants of Gandhāra, the Sattagydai and Arakhōsians, formed a satrapy of the Persian Empire. The Aśvaka (Assakenoi) on the left bank of the Kābul, with the races farther north on the Indus, formed a special satrapy, that of the Indians. Both, according to Herodotos, furnished soldiers for Xerxēs’ great enterprise against Greece. The Persian power was probably exercised over these peoples as early as the reign of Kyros. Arrian mentions the Astakenoi and Assakenoi as being tributary to him; while his statement that the same tribes were, at an earlier period, subject to Assyria, points to the sovereignty of that empire having, at one time, extended to these regions. Evidence of an Assyrian expedition of some kind in this direction is preserved in a bas-relief found at Birs Nimrud, in which prisoners, with the Baktrian camel, the elephant, and the rhinoceros, are represented as being brought to the king.—Rawlinson, Anc. Monarchies, iv, 433. LIA. i, 1031. Duncker, Gesch. des Alterthums, iii, 14, 294. Droysen, Gesch. des Hellenismus, vol. i, bk. 3, p. 97. ### [c5.21](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.21) 513 Bimbisāra, Śreṇya or Śreṇika, king of Magadha, son of Bhaṭṭiya and friend of Buddha, who was his senior by five years. He was murdered after a reign of fifty-two years by his son Ajātaśatru (Mahāvaṃśa). The Dulva states that Bimbisāra conquered Brahmadatta, king of Aṅga, by whom his father had been subdued, and took his capital Champā, living there until Bhaṭṭiya's death, when he moved to Rājagṛiha. The \*Vāyu\* and \*Matsya Purāṇas\*—in the latter of which he is called Bindusena or Vindhyasena—assign Bimbisāra a reign of twenty-eight years, and, with the other Purāṇas, call his predecessor Kṣetrajña or Kṣatraujas, and represent him as belonging to the Śaiśunāga dynasty. Buddhist authorities, according to whom the Śaiśunāga dynasty succeeded that of Ajātaśatru, call him a Vaideha.—LIA. i, 859; ii, 69. WVP. iv, 180. MV., chap. ii. ### [c5.22](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.22) 485 Ajātaśatru or Kūnika murders and succeeds his father Bimbisāra, eight years before Buddha's death. He is said to have been at first a persecutor of the Buddhists, but later on a convert. Amongst other acts ascribed to him are:—the founding of the new Rājagṛiha and the capture of Vaiśālī. The \*Mahāvaṃśa\* assigns him a reign of thirty-two years, the \*Vāyu Purāṇa\* one of twenty-five, and the \*Matsya\* one of twenty-seven. According to the \*Viṣṇu\*, \*Vāyu\*, and \*Matsya Purāṇas\* his successors were:—Darbhaka, Udayāśva, called also Udāyin or Udibhi, Nandivardhana, and Mahānandin, ruling 143 (or 140) years. Their successors, known to Buddhist sources as the Nandas, reigned until the accession of Chandragupta in B.C. 315. Singhalese and other Buddhist authorities, while omitting Darbhaka, name Udāyin as the successor of Ajātaśatru. They differ, however, entirely from the Pauranic sources in their lists of the succeeding kings. For the comparative tables of these see Appendix.—LIA. ii, 82, 86 ff., 90, 97. WVP. iv, 181. MV., chap. ii. ZDMG. xxxiv, 183 ff., 748 ff.; xxxv, 667. ### [c5.23](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.23) 478 Viḍūḍabha or Virūdhaka, son of Prasenajit, king of Kosala, dethrones his father and exterminates the Śākya clan at Kapilavastu. ### [c5.24](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.24) 477 Buddha's death in the eighth year of Ajātaśatru, and calculated from the accession of Chandragupta, Maurya, which it preceded by 162 years. Singhalese tradition places it in B.C. 543, Rhys Davids assigns it to about B.C. 412, Westergaard and Kern to between 388 and 370 B.C.—JBA. xxiii, 704. CASR. iii, 126. IA. vi, 154. ### [c5.25](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.25) Buddhist Council at Rājagṛiha under Kāśyapa, Ānanda, and Upāli.—SBE. x, Int. xxxix. NO. i, \*Anc. Coins and Measures of Ceylon\*, 38. ### [c5.26](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.26) 415 Ktēsias, a Greek physician of Knidos; for seventeen years at the court of Persia under Dareios II and Artaxerxēs Mnēmōn, returning to his own country about B.C. 398. Author of the Indika, the earliest Greek work on India. The original is lost, but an abridgment of it by Phōtios still exists, and fragments of it are preserved in the works of other writers.—LIA. ii, 641 ff. McCrindle, Anc. India, as described by Ktēsias the Knidian. ### [c5.27](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.27) 377 Buddhist Council said to have been held at Vaiśālī for the consideration and rejection of ten erroneous doctrines. According to Singhalese tradition this was 118 years before Aśoka’s coronation.—Vinayapiṭakam, ed. Oldenberg, Int. xxix, xxxviii. ### [c5.28](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.28) 357 A. Vir. 170. Bhadrabāhu, head of the Digambara Jains, dies. Śvetāmbara tradition refers the collection of the Aṅgas by the Saṅgha of Pāṭaliputra to the time of his patriarchate. The Digambaras place his death in A.V. 162.—SBE. xxii, Int. xliii. ### [c5.29](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.29) 350 Probable date of the grammarian Pāṇini, according to Böhtlingk; though Goldstücker and Bhandārkār place him before Buddha.—Pāṇini’s Grammatik, hrsg. von O. Böhtlingk, Einleitung. Goldstücker, Pāṇini, his Place in Sanskrit Literature; also Lit. Rem. i, 126 ff. BD. 9. WL. 217 ff. Indische Streifen, ii, 94 ff.; iii, 408. IA. xxii, 222. ### [c5.30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.30) 327 Alexander, in the spring, completes the reduction of Sogdiana by invading the Paraitakai (the people of Hissar). The Rock of Khoriēnēs, situated near Faizābād on the river Waksh, which was deemed impregnable, having capitulated, he marches back to Baktra, where he completes his preparations for the invasion of India. Leaving Baktra at the end of spring, he recrosses the Indian Kaukasos, and having advanced eastward to Nikaia, he is joined by Omphis, king of Taxila, and other chiefs, who had tendered their submission. From this place he despatches one part of his army to the river Indus by way of the Khaibar Pass, while, with the other, he himself pursues a more northerly and circuitous route, subduing on his way the Nysaians, Aspasians, Assakēnians, and Gouraians, and capturing the strong cities of Massaga and Peukelaōtis and the celebrated Rock Aornos. ### [c5.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.31) 326 Alexander, having crossed the Indus near the modern Attak, 326 advances to Taxila, a great and flourishing city three marches east of the river, where he is hospitably entertained by Omphis or Taxilēs. After the rains had set in he marches to the Hydaspēs (Jhīlam), and encamps on its right bank at Jalālpūr, whence he sees the army of Pōros prepared to dispute his crossing. Having made the passage of the river at a point above Jalālpūr, he engages and defeats Pōros in a great battle, taking him prisoner. He then founds two cities, Nikaia (now Mong) on the site of the victory, and Boukephala at his passage of the river, named in memory of his famous horse which was killed in the battle. He next conquers the Glausai, who inhabited the districts now called Bhimber and Bajaur, and receives the submission of Abisarēs of Kashmir. Having crossed the Akesinēs (Chenāb), he traverses the country between that river and the Hydraōtēs (Rāvi) in pursuit of Pōros, who was the nephew of the great Pōros and had revolted. Crossing the Hydraōtēs, he advances to the Hyphasis (Biyās), but is opposed by the Kathaians, whose form of government was republican. He drives them into their capital, Sangala, which he besieges, captures, and razes to the ground. He next receives the submission of Sōphytēs, king of a flourishing territory lying to the west of the Hyphasis, towards the foot of the hills. Having obtained information as to the strength of the army kept by Agrammēs or Xandramēs, king of Magadha, his troops refuse to proceed, and Alexander returns to the Hydaspēs, causing the two cities which he had founded near it, and which had been damaged by the rains, to be repaired. He then prepares a fleet for the transport of a part of his troops down the river to the sea. Here he loses one of his greatest generals—Koinos. At the end of October the fleet sails. Alexander hastens the voyage on learning that the Malloi and Oxydrakai are preparing to resist him. Having reached the junction of the Akesinēs with the Hydaspēs, he makes an inroad into the country of the Sibi to prevent their aiding the Malloi. With one division of his army he invades the territories of the Malloi and captures a strongly fortified city to which they had fled (possibly Kot Kamālia). After taking other strongholds, he defeats the Malloi at the Hydraōtēs (Rāvi), near Multān, and then attacks one of their chief fortresses, in the capture of which he is wounded. Having received the submission of the Malloi and Oxydrakai, he continues his voyage to the confluence of the united streams of the Panjab with the Indus. ### [c5.32](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.32) Alexander is rejoined at the Indus by Perdikkas, who had subjugated the Abastanoi. Here also he receives the submission of the Ossadioi, and founds a city to which he gives his own name. He next comes to the capital of the Sogdoi, where he constructs dockyards, thereafter reaching the dominions of Mousikanos, whose metropolis seems to have been at Alor. He then wars against Oxykanos and against Sambos, who ruled the mountainous country to the west of the Indus, and whose capital was Sindimāna (now Sehwān). He despatches Krateros with part of his army to Karmania by the route through the Arakhōsians and Sarangians. Towards the end of summer he reaches Patala, a city at the apex of the Delta (probably east of Haidarābād). From Patala he sails down the right arm of the Indus to the ocean, and afterwards down the left arm. He then starts with part of his remaining forces to return to Persia by way of Gedrōsia. The other part he places under the command of Nearkhos, who conducts the fleet from the Indus to the head of the Persian Gulf, starting on his voyage towards the end of September, after Alexander had, early in that month, taken his departure. Alexander, having crossed the river Arabios (now the Purāli), invades the Oreitai (Lus Bela tribes), whom he reduces to submission. In the country of the Oreitai, Ptolemy, afterwards king of Egypt, is dangerously wounded by a poisoned arrow. According to Diodōros Sikulos, this happened in Sindh, near Hermatelia. The fleet, having reached Alexander's Haven (somewhere near Karāchi), is detained twenty-four days. From the country of the Oreitai, Alexander enters Gedrōsia, and, after a terrible march of sixty days through its burning sands, in which many of his soldiers perish, he reaches its capital, Poura (perhaps Bampūr). After leaving Poura he receives tidings that Philip, whom he had appointed satrap of the Panjab, had been murdered in India by his mercenaries, and his death avenged by his Makedonian body-guards. Upon this, Alexander appoints Eudēmos and Taxilēs to administer the satrapy until he sends a successor. ### [c5.33](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.33) 324 Alexander, on reaching Karmania, is rejoined by the troops under Krateros, and is informed by Nearkhos of the safety of his fleet, which has reached the river Anamis (the Mināb) at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. From Karmania, after celebrating his conquest of the Indians, Alexander sends the main body of his army under Hēphaistiōn to Susa by the coast road, ### [c5.34](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.34) | B.C. | | | 324 | and marches himself with a small division to the same capital by way of Pasargadai and Persepolis. At the village of Ahwāz, on the river Eulaios (the Ulaï of Daniel and now the Karun), towards the end of February, he finds Nearkhos and the fleet. At Susa, Kalanos the gymnosophist, who had accompanied him from Taxila, burns himself on a funeral pile. Towards the end of the year Alexander goes to Ekbatana, where he loses his favourite Hēphaistiōn. | | 323 | Alexander returns, early in spring, to Babylon, where he is cut off, in June, by malarious fever. | | 321 | Second division of the Makedonian Empire at Triparadeisos. Sibyrtios confirmed in the government of Gedrōsia and Arakhōsia, Oxyartēs in that of the Paropamisos, Peithōn in that of the Cis-Indian territory, Taxilēs in that of the country on the Hydaspēs, and Pōros in that of the lower Indus.—Droysen, \*Gesch. des Hellenismus\*, vol. ii, bk. 1, 143–4. | | 317 | Eudēmos, the military governor of the Panjab, treacherously murders Pōros, to whom, along with Taxilēs, the civil administration had been entrusted, and takes possession of his kingdom. Later in the same year Eudēmos joins Eumenēs in Susiana against Antigonos. His departure from India is fatal to the Greek power there. Sandrokottos (Chandragupta) leads the revolt against foreign ascendancy and makes himself master of the Panjab. | | 315 | Chandragupta establishes the Maurya dynasty at Pāṭaliputra. The chronology of this dynasty and that of Buddha's death are determined by the initial date assigned to this king (see B.C. 477). The outside termini for his accession are the years 320 and 310 B.C., but historical evidence inclines to B.C. 315 or 312, the latter being coincident with the Seleukidan era. The \*Vāyu Purāṇa\*, the \*Dīpavaṃśa\*, and the \*Aṭṭhakathā\* all assign Chandragupta a reign of twenty-four years. His history is the subject of Viśakhadatta's play—the \*Mūdrarākshasa\*.—MV., chap. v. Max Müller, \*Hist. Anc. Sans. Lit.\* 298. Kern, \*Geschiedenis van het Buddhisme in Indië\*, ii, 266, note. LIA. ii, 64–5, 222, 1207. SBE. xxii, Int. x ff. JRAS., n.s., xv, 77. IA. vi, 154 ff.; xx, 242. Wilson, \*Theatre\* ii, 127–150. See Appendix. | ### [c5.35](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.35) Seleukos Nikator, king of Syria, is said to have undertaken an expedition against Chandragupta about this time, in order to recover the Indian conquests of Alexander. The result is a treaty by which Seleukos cedes to Chandragupta the eastern parts of Gedrōsia and Arakhōsia, together with the Paropamisos and the territories on the west bank of the Indus, in exchange for 500 elephants. ### [c5.36](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.36) About this time, or a little later, Megasthenēs was sent by Seleukos as ambassador to Chandragupta at Palibothra (Pāṭaliputra). His \*Indika\*, of which a few fragments remain, gives a valuable picture of the life and customs of the Hindus at that date.—LIA. ii, 218-9, 688. Duncker, \*Gesch. des Alterthums\*, iii, 346. Droysen, \*Gesch. des Hellenismus\*, vol. ii, bk. 3, 199; iii, bk. 1, 77. IA. v, 333. ### [c5.37](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.37) Bindusāra, Maurya, succeeds his father Chandragupta. By the Greeks he is known as Amitrochates, \*i.e.\* Amitraghāta. Daimachos was sent to him as ambassador by Antiokhos, and Dionysios by Ptolemy Philadelphos. Bindusāra is stated by the \*Mahāvaṃśa\* to have reigned twenty-eight years, by the \*Vāyu Purāṇa\*, which calls him Bhadrasāra, twenty-five years.—MV., chap. v. LIA. ii, 222 ff., 1207. Droysen, \*Gesch. des Hellenismus\*, vol. iii, bk. 1, 80. ### [c5.38](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.38) Aśoka succeeds his father Bindusāra at Pāṭaliputra, when he is said to have put most of the royal family to death. His \*abhisheka\* took place in the fourth year of his reign. ### [c5.39](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.39) A.B. 219 cur. Aśoka crowned at Pāṭaliputra, according to the \*Mahāvaṃśa\*, in the fourth year of his reign, and 218 years after Buddha's death. The \*Mahāvaṃśa\* assigns to Aśoka a reign of thirty-seven years; the year 257 A.B., in which, according to Bühler, the Rupnāth and Sahasrām edicts are dated, would correspond, therefore, to the last of his reign. The chief events mentioned in his edicts are:—Aśoka's conquest of Kalinga in his ninth year (Rock Edict xiii); his institution, in the eleventh year, of an annual progress throughout his dominions in search of religious truth; his solemn adoption, in the thirteenth year, of the Dhamma or Sacred Law, and the order for its propagation by his officials on their annual tours through their districts (Rock Edict iii); and the appointment, in his 259 fourteenth year, of the Dhammamahāmātras or Superintendents of the Sacred Law. His conversion to Buddhism is assigned by the \*Mahāvaṃśa\* to his fourth year, but on the evidence of the edicts it may have occurred as late as the twenty-ninth year of his reign. ### [c5.40](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.40) Under Aśoka the Mauryan Empire extended over the whole of Northern India, from Afghanistan to Maisūr, and from Kāṭhiāvāḍ to Kaliṅga (Orissa). Among his contemporaries were Antiokhos II of Syria (B. C. 260–247), Ptolemy Philadelphos (285–247), Antigonos Gonatos of Makedonia (278–242), Magas of Kyrēnē (d. 258), and Alexander of Epeiros (between 262 and 258), who have been identified with the kings mentioned in his thirteenth edict. Senart has come to somewhat different conclusions regarding Aśoka's initial date. Taking the synchronism of the Greek kings as the basis of his calculation, he fixes Aśoka's accession in B.C. 273 and his coronation in 269. This would force Chandragupta's accession back to B.C. 325.—MV., chap. v. LIA. ii, 223 ff. IA. vi, 149 ff. CI. i, pref. vii. \*Vinayapiṭakam\*, ed. Oldenberg, Int. xxxviii. CT. 23. ZDMG. xxxv, 473; xxxvii, 87; xxxix, 489; xl, 127; xli, 1; xliii, 128, 273; xliv, 702; xlvi, 54, 539; xlviii, 49. IA. xx, 154, 229 ff.; xxii, 299. EI. ii, 245 ff. ### [c5.41](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.41) 248 Diodotos, satrap of Baktria, revolts against Antiokhos II of Syria, and founds the Graeco-Baktrian kingdom. This event was, according to Justin, contemporaneous with the revolt of Parthia under Arsakēs. Von Sallet and Lassen follow Bayer in placing the Parthian revolt in B.C. 250, and the last places the accession of Diodotos in B.C. 255. Justin says Diodotos was succeeded by a son of the same name, but there is no numismatic evidence in support of this statement.—Bayer, \*HRGB.\* 38. LIA. ii, 295 ff. Von Sallet, \*Nachfolger Alexanders\*, 3. BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xx. ### [c5.42](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.42) ²⁴⁶ The so-called Third Buddhist Council held at Pāṭaliputra in the seventeenth year of Aśoka's reign, under the presidency of Tishya Maudgalīputra.—LIA., ii, 240 ff. DV. vii, 44. \*Vinayapiṭakam\*, ed. Oldenberg, Int. xxxi ff. WL. ### [c5.43](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.43) ²⁹⁰ SBE. x, Int. xxvi, xxxix. ### [c5.44](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.44) ²⁴¹ The Buddhist Council sends Mahendra, son of King Aśoka, as missionary to Ceylon, where he introduces the Buddhist religion in the reign of Devānāmpiyatissa.—LIA. ii, 259. MV., chap. xiii. SBE. x, Int. xxxix. ### [c5.45](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.45) B.C. 220 Euthydēmos of Magnesia overthrows Diodotos of Baktria and usurps his kingdom; is in full power at the time of the eastern expedition of Antiokhos III (B.C. 208). Euthydēmos considerably extended the Greek power in India, and ruled "also the widest district ever possessed by the Greeks to the north of the Paropamisos, from Margiana to Chinese Tartary."—LIA. ii, 307. Von Sallet, \*Nachfolger Alexanders\*, 5. BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xxi. ### [c5.46](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.46) 215 Daśaratha, Maurya, second in succession from Aśoka, according to the Purāṇas, and mentioned in a Gayā inscription of the third century. See Appendix.—LIA. ii, 283 ff., 1208. ### [c5.47](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.47) 206 Antiokhos III of Syria, after making war on Euthydēmos of Baktria, concludes a peace and acknowledges his independence. He then crosses the Paropamisos into India, makes a treaty with Sophagasenos (Subhāgasena), and returns in the following year through Arakhōsia and Drangiana to Syria.—LIA. ii, 285. BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xxii. ### [c5.48](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.48) 195 Dēmētrios of Baktria invades and reduces the Panjab during the reign of his father Euthydēmos. Dēmētrios probably succeeded his father about B.C. 190.—LIA. ii, 313 ff. BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xxiii, xxxiii. See \*Encyc. Brit.\* under \*Persia\*, p. 590. ### [c5.49](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.49) 193 Mahendra, son of King Aśoka, dies in Ceylon in his 60th year.—DV. xvii, 95. ### [c5.50](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.50) 181 Eukratidēs, the rival of Dēmētrios I. Justin states that the Indian conquests of Eukratidēs belong to the end of his reign, and that Dēmētrios ruled until nearly the same time. The coins of the former, found at Balkh, Sīstān, in the Kābul Valley, and the Panjab, seem, however, to show that Dēmētrios was early deprived of his Indian territories, and that Eukratidēs, for the greater part of his reign, ruled in India as well as over Baktria and Arakhōsia. Towards the end of it Mithridatēs I of Parthia seized the provinces of Turiūa and Aspionēs (situated probably in the district of the Tajand and Hari-rud). As coins of Eukratidēs are copied by Plato (probably a revolted satrap of his own), B.C. 165, and by Timarkhos of Babylon, B.C. 162, his reign may have extended to this or even a later year. Its beginning was, according to Justin, contemporary with that of Mithridatēs I (B.C. 171), but Bayer places it in B.C. 181. Eukratidēs founded the city of Eukratideia in Baktria. ### [c5.51](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.51) The reigns of Euthydēmos II, Pantaleōn, Agathoklēs, and Antimakhos I fall about the same period as that of Eukratidēs. Numismatic evidence points to the three first having belonged to the party of Euthydēmos I and Dēmētrios, and suggests the possibility of their having been sons of the latter. The locality of the kingdom of Euthydēmos II cannot be determined; the date of his reign may have been about B.C. 170. ### [c5.52](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.52) Pantaleōn’s reign was probably shorter and less widely extended than that of Agathoklēs, with whom he seems to have been nearly related. Coins of both are found in the Kābul Valley and the Western Panjab; those of Agathoklēs also in Qāndāhār. ### [c5.53](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.53) The coins of Antimakhos point to his having gained a naval victory, probably on the Indus.—Bayer, HRGB. 42, 88. V. de St. Martin, \*Les Huns Blancs\*, 23, note 2. LIA. ii, 318 ff. Von Sallet, \*Nachfolger Alexanders\*, 8 ff. CASR. xiv, 18 ff. BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xxiv ff. ### [c5.54](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.54) Rise of the Andhrabhṛitya or Sātavāhana dynasty. Names of three of the early princes of this dynasty occur in inscriptions belonging to the first half of the second century B.C. Simuka Sātavāhana, mentioned in an inscription at Nānāghāṭ, has been identified by Bühler with the prince whose name, under the forms Sindhuka, Śiśuka, Śipraka, and Chhismaka, stands first in the Pauranic lists of the Andhras as founder of the dynasty. Kṛishna Sātavāhana, of whom there is an inscription at Nāsik of the same period, is the second prince of these lists, there called a brother of Simuka. Śātakarṇi, whose name, with that of his wife Nāyanikā, occurs in a Nānāghāṭ inscription of the same time as that of Simuka, has been identified with the third prince of the Pauranic lists. He is probably, too, the Śātakarṇi king whom Khāravela of Kalinga, in the Hāthigumphā inscription, claims to have protected in the second year of his reign (B.C. 163).—General references for the dynasty :—WVP. iv, 194 ff. Trans. Or. Cong. 1874, 306 ff. JBRAS. xii, 407 ff. ; xiii, 303 ; xiv, 147 ff. ; xv, 305. IA. vii, 257 ; x, 225 ff. ; xii, 27, 272 ; xxi, 203 ff. JRAS., N.S., 1890, 639 ff. ; \*ib.\* 1893, 613. ASWI. iv, 98 ff. ; v, 59 ff. ; B.ASSI. i, 3 ff. BD., secs. iv-vi. ### [c5.55](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.55) Pushyamitra, according to Pauranic tradition, overthrows Bṛihadratha, last of the Mauryas, and founds the Śuṅga dynasty in Magadha, 137 years after Chandragupta’s coronation. The \*Viṣṇu\*, \*Vāyu\*, and \*Matsya Purāṇas\* represent him as Bṛhadratha’s general, the \*Vāyu\* assigning him a reign of sixty, the \*Matsya\* and \*Brahmāṇḍa\* one of thirty-six years, after which, according to the \*Viṣṇu\* and \*Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇas\*, he was succeeded by his son Agnimitra, who, as king of Viḍiśa, is the hero of Kālidāsa’s \*Mālavikāgnimitra\*. Pushyamitra, who figures in the same play, is also mentioned in the \*Aśoka Avadāna\* as a persecutor of the Buddhists.—WVP. iv, 190 ff. LIA. ii, 283, 361 ff., 1208. Shankar P. Pandit’s \*Mālavikāgnimitra\*, pref. xxxi. \*Bhāgavata Purāṇa\*, xii, 1. 15. BD. 23. IA. i, 301; ii, 61, 362. See Appendix. ### [c5.56](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.56) The great Yueh-ti, driven westward by the Hiung-nu, establish themselves in Sogdiana by the expulsion of the Sse, Sek, or Śaka tribe, which, thus dispossessed, invades Baktria. The Yueh-ti were found settled north of the Oxus about the year 126 B.C. by Chang K‘ien, ambassador of Wu-ti of the First Han dynasty. After this they captured Lan-chi, the capital of the Ta-hia, and established themselves definitely in Baktria. One hundred years after this conquest Kadphises (Khiu-tsiu-kio), leader of the Kushaṇa tribe, conquered all the rest and destroyed the Greek kingdom in India under Hermaios. The above dates are given on the authority of Specht, but differ slightly from those assigned by other writers.—LIA. ii, 367 ff. JA., 3e série, t. viii, 264; \*ib.\*, 8e série, ii, 317 ff., and 348. Drouin, RN., 3e série, t. vi, 21, 215. JRAS., N.S., xiv, 77 ff. ### [c5.57](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.57) Hēlioklēs succeeds his father Eukratidēs, and reigns till about 120. Baktria was lost to the Sse or Śaka tribe apparently after B.C. 140, and wrested from it by the Yueh-ti about B.C. 126, or later. See B.C. 165. ### [c5.58](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.58) To about the same period as Hēlioklēs belong Apollodotos I, Antialkidas, Lysias, Strato I, Philoxenos, and Archebios. ### [c5.59](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.59) Apollodotos I is supposed by Lassen to have been a brother of Hēlioklēs, and to have wrested from him the Indian provinces of the kingdom on the death of their father Eukratidēs. The proximity of Apollodotos to the latter in point of time is proved by his coins, which are re-struck with the name of Eukratidēs. They are found in the Upper Kābul Valley, Qāndahār, Roh, and Sindh, and are distinct from, and more widely distributed than, those of Apollodotos Philopatōr, who was probably a later king. ### [c5.60](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.60) Antialkidas and Lysias reigned in the Kābul Valley and the 160 Panjab. Antialkidas seems to have been a contemporary or successor of Hēlioklēs, and may have belonged to the Eukratidian dynasty. The connection of Lysias is obscure. ### [c5.61](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.61) Strato and his wife Agathokleia, possibly a descendant of Euthydēmos I, are assigned to this period, as Hēlioklēs and Strato re-strike each other's coins. A Strato II, son of Strato, seems to have followed.—V. de St. Martin, \*Les Huns Blancs\*, 23, n. 2. LIA. ii, 324 ff., 333 ff., 345 ff., 348 ff. \*Nachfolger Alexanders\*, 22 ff., 130. See \*Encyc. Brit.\* under Persia, 591 ff. BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, Int. xxix-xxxix. ### [c5.62](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.62) 150 Maurya era 165—date of the Hāthigumphā inscription of the thirteenth year of Khāravela or Bhikhurāja, of Kaliṅga. His accession would fall, therefore, in B.C. 163. Bhagwānlāl Indraji calculated the Maurya era from Aśoka's conquest of Kaliṅga, in the ninth year of his reign, but Bühler concludes that it originated with Chandragupta's coronation. Khāravela who, though a Jain by religion, calls himself a worshipper of all sects, is stated in the Hāthigumphā inscription to have been the Cheta dynasty. He became Yuvarāja in his fifteenth year, and king of Kaliṅga in his twenty-fourth. In the second year of his reign he received tribute from the then reigning Andhra king, Śātakarṇi, and in the same year, with the aid of the Kusumba (?) Kshatriyas, conquered Masika (?). In his eighth year Khāravela undertook an expedition against the King of Rājagṛiha, who fled to Mathurā. In his twelfth year he invaded Magadha, advancing as far as the Ganges, apparently subduing the king. His immediate predecessors on the throne of Kaliṅga seem to have been his father Vudharāja and his grandfather Khemarāja. Khāravela married the daughter of Hathisāha or Hathisiṁha, the grandson of Lālaka.—\*Actes du VIe Congrès International des Orientalistes\*, Sect. Ary., t. iii, 135 ff. Bühler, \*Secte der Jaina\*, 31, 41. Bühler, \*Monatschrift für den Orient\*, September 1884, 231. EI. ii, 89. ### [c5.63](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.63) 144 Menander, Graeco-Baktrian king, placed by Lassen about this date. Menander seems to have been one of the most powerful of the Graeco-Baktrian kings. The number of his coins, and the wide area over which they are found, point to a long reign and an extended sovereignty. Traditions of some of his conquests have been preserved by Strabo; and Plutarch mentions him as a Baktrian king, and states that, on his death (B.C. 115), several towns contended for his ashes. The passages in Patañjali's \*Mahābhāshya\* recording the besieging of Sāketa (Ayodhyā), and the conquest of the Mādhyamikas by the Yavanas, are supposed to refer to Menander's conquests. He is also identical with the Milinda of the famous Buddhist work the \*Milinda Pañha\*.—Goldstücker, \*Pāṇini, his place in Sanskrit Literature\*, 234. LIA. ii, 313, 341 ff. IA. i, 299 ff. Von Sallet, \*Nachfolger Alexanders\*, 33, 34. BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xxxiii. WL. 306. SBE. xxxv, Int. xviii ff. ### [c5.64](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.64) B.C. 140 Patañjali, the grammarian, author of the \*Mahābhāshya\*, flourished about B.C. 140–120. Goldstücker and Bhandārkār have fixed Patañjali's date from passages in the \*Mahābhāshya\* which show him to have been contemporary with Menander and Pushyamitra. Patañjali was a native of Gonarda in Eastern India, and lived for a time in Kashmir. His mother's name was Goṇikā.—Goldstücker, \*Pāṇini\*, 234; \*Lit. Rem.\* i, 131 ff. LIA. ii, 485. BD. 8. IA. i, 299 ff. JBRAS. xvi, 181, 199. ### [c5.65](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.65) B.C. 100 The Śaka king Maues, Moas, or Moga placed by Von Sallet about this date. His coins are found only in the Panjab, and chiefly in the north-west of it. To the same, or possibly to a later period, belong the contemporary rulers—Patika, son of Liaka Kusuluka, the Mahākshatrapa Rājuvula or Raṇjubula, and his son Śuḍāsa, all of whose names occur in the Mathurā Lion Pillar inscriptions. The Taxila copper-plate of Patika, dated in the year 78 under the great king Moga, and Śuḍāsa's Mathurā inscription in the year 72, refer to some era the epoch of which is at present unknown.—Von Sallet, \*Nachfolger Alexanders\*, 46, 65, 134, 136. BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xxxix, xl. CASR. iii, 30, pl. xiii, and 39 ff.; xi, 25, 38; xii, 43; xiv, 57; xx, 48, pl. v, No. 4. NC., 3rd ser., x, 104, 128, 129. JA., 8e série, xv, 127. JRAS., o.s., xx, 221 ff.; \*ib.\* 1894, 525–554. EI. ii, 199; iv, 54. ### [c5.66](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.66) B.C. 80 The Buddhist canonical texts in Ceylon reduced to writing in the reign of Abhaya Vaṭṭagāmiṇi. ### [c5.67](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.67) B.C. 70 Azes, Aspavarma, Azilises, Vonones, Spalirises, Spalahores, Spalyris, and Spalagadames flourish about this period. Azes was the successor, and perhaps the son, of Maues; Aspavarma, a general or satrap of Azes. Gardner suggests that Azilises, ### [c5.68](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.68) | B.C. | | | 70 | Vonones, Spalirises, Spalahores, and Spalyris were sons of Azes, and Spalagadames his grandson. From the absence of their coins in the Panjab, Cunningham infers that they could not have ruled there, and suggests Vonones' having been the great chief of the Śaka horde after the death of Maues, and that he remained in Sakastene while his relatives and generals possessed Qāndāhār, Sindh, and the Panjab. Azes and Azilises seem from their coins to have ruled over the Western Panjab. Cunningham fixes their capital at Taxila, and gives them the dates B.C. 100–20.—LIA. ii, 385 ff. \*Nachfolger Alexanders\*, 48 ff. BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xli, xlix. Cunningham, NC., 3rd ser., viii, 215 ff.; x, 104 ff., 126. | | 66 | Extinction of the Śuṅga dynasty. According to Pauranic tradition, the Śuṅga dynasty, after lasting 112 years, was overthrown by Vāsudeva who murdered his master Devabhūti and usurped the throne as first of the Kaṇva dynasty.—WVP. iv, 192. | | 57 | Thursday, September 18th. Commencement of the Saṃvat era attributed to Vikramāditya, prevalent in Western India, and probably originating in Mālava. In Northern India it follows the pūrṇimānta reckoning, and the year begins with the full moon of Chaitra (instead of Kārttika), making the epoch Sunday, February 23rd, B.C. 57, or Kaliyuga 3044 expired. | | 50 | Miaüs (Heraüs), a Śaka king, according to Gardner, and the contemporary of Kozulo Kadphises. Cunningham considers him a Kushaṇa, and identifies him with Yin-mo-fu who, according to Chinese accounts, conquered Kipin in B.C. 49.—BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xlvii. Cunningham, NC., 3rd ser., x, 113. Rémusat, \*Nouv. Mélanges Asiatiques\*, i, 207. | | 30 | Kozulo Kadphises, ruler of the Kushaṇa tribe of the Yueh-ti, subjugates the four other tribes and takes the title "King of the Kushaṇas." Having invaded the country of the Arsakides and seized Kipin (Arakhōsia, Drangiana, and Sakastene), he conquers Hermaios, the last ruler of the Greek kingdom in India, about B.C. 25, reigning at first with him and finally in his place. Kozulo Kadphises died at the age of 80, A.D. 10.—BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xxxi, xlviii. Specht, JA., 8e série, ii, 325. Drouin, RN., 3e série, t. vi, 23, 215. Cunningham, NC., 3rd ser., xii, 41. | ### [c5.69](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.69) An Indian embassy received by Augustus at Samos. Strabo relates that Nicolaus Damascenus met at Antioch Epidaphne the survivors of an Indian embassy to Augustus bearing a letter in Greek from a king named Pandiōn or Pōros. With them was Zarmanochegas (Śramaṇāchārya) of Barygaza or Bharoch, who afterwards burned himself at Athens. Allusions to this embassy are made by Horace in his odes. Florus and Suetonius refer to it, and Dio Cassius speaks of its reception at Samos B.C. 22–20, and mentions Zarmaros (Zarmanochegas) as accompanying it. It is mentioned by Hieronymus in his translation of the \*Canon Chronicon\* of Eusebius, but placed by him in the third year of the 188th Olympiad = B.C. 26, while Orosius of Tarragona speaks of an Indian and a Skythian embassy reaching Caesar in Spain B.C. 27. These various notices apparently refer to one and the same embassy, probably sent by some petty Indian king at the instigation, and in the interests of, Greek traders.—Reinaud, \*Relations politiques et commerciales de l’Empire Romain avec l’Asie Orientale\*, or JA. 1863, 6e série, i, 179 ff. Priaulx, \*Indian Travels of Apollonius of Tyana and Indian Embassies to Rome\*, 65 ff. Strabo, xv, i, 73. ### [c5.70](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.70) Hooēmo Kadphises, Kushaṇa, successor of Kozulo Kadphises according to Chinese sources. He has been identified with the Yen-kao-chên to whom Chinese records attribute the conquest of India. He greatly extended the Kushaṇa power there, establishing it, apparently, all over North-Western India. Gardner and others, on the strength of numismatic evidence, call the successor of Kozulo Kadphises Kozulo Kadaphes, while Cunningham, reading this as a mere variant of the former name, inserts after Kozulo Kadphises a Kozulo Kara Kadphises, of whom coins exist of a type distinct from that of the other kings. Chinese records, on the other hand, make Hooēmo Kadphises the immediate successor of Kozulo Kadphises and say nothing about any other king.—BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xxxiii, xlix, 1. Drouin, RN., 3e série, t. vi, 46, 47. NC., 3rd ser., xii, 46, 47. ### [c5.71](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.71) Gondophares or Yndopherres, Abdagases, Orthagnes, Arsakēs, Zeionises, and Pakoros — Parthian rulers in Afghanistan and Northern India about A.D. 25–50. ### [c5.72](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.72) Gondophares has been identified with the Guduphara or Gadaphara whose inscription from Takt-i-Bahi is dated in his twenty-sixth year, and in Sam. 103 (possibly of the Vikrama era). ### [c5.73](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.73) 25 Gondophares is probably to be further identified with the Gundoferus of old Church legends said to have been ruling in India at the time of the Apostle Thomas's mission there. A coin of Orōdēs I, and one of Artabanos III (A.D. 10–40) bear the monogram of Yndopherres. ### [c5.74](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.74) Abdagases is called on his coins a brother's son of Gondophares, and was possibly related to the Parthian who dethroned Artabanos III in A.D. 36 or 44. ### [c5.75](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.75) Coins of Gondophares are found at Beghram and in the Panjab, those of Orthagnes in Sīstān and Qāndāhār, those of Abdagases in the Western Panjab. ### [c5.76](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.76) Sanabares, whose coins resemble those of Gondophares, is placed by Von Sallet in A.D. 80, but assigned by Gardner to the beginning of the Christian era. ### [c5.77](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.77) Zeionises or Jihonisa, called on his coins a satrap, was, according to Gardner, a contemporary of Gondophares, but Cunningham places him about B.C. 80, connecting him, as does Von Sallet, with the dynasty of Azes.—JBA. xxiii, 711. JRAS., n.s., vii, 379. PIA. ii, 214. CASR. ii, 59, 60; v, 59. NC., 3rd ser., x, 118–125. IA. ii, 242; ix, 312; x, 214. JA., 8e série, xv, 114, 127. Von Sallet, \*Nachfolger Alexanders\*, 51 ff. and 157. BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, xxxiii, xliii–v. ### [c5.78](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.78) 41 An embassy from Ceylon sent to the Emperor Claudius between A.D. 41 and 54. Pliny relates of this embassy that a freedman of Annius Plocamus, being driven into Hippuros, a port of Ceylon, was detained and befriended by the king, who, hearing from him about Rome, sent thither Rachias and three other ambassadors, from whom Pliny obtained the information about Ceylon embodied in his \*Natural History\*. The exact date of the embassy cannot be determined. It left Ceylon probably in the reign of Chandramukhaśiva (A.D. 44–52), and apparently reached Rome after the publication of Pomponius Mela's geography, between A.D. 43 and 47. Priaulx suggests its having been sent by the Singhalese Tamils rather than by the Singhalese proper.—Priaulx, \*Travels of Apollonius of Tyana\*, 91. ### [c5.79](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.79) ⁴⁵ Apollonios of Tyana said to have visited India.—Priaulx, \*Apollonius of Tyana\*. ZDMG. xlv, 439; xlvi, 466, 780. ### [c5.80](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.80) ⁴⁷ Hippalus discovers the south-west monsoon in the Indian Ocean.—IA. viii, 338; ix, 313, n. 9. ### [c5.81](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.81) Kāśyapa or Kāśya Mātaṅga, a Buddhist teacher, visits China at the invitation of the Emperor Ming-ti (A.D. 58–75). He is followed later in the same year by Fa-lan, like himself a Śramaṇa of Central India, apparently called Gobharaṇa or Bhāraṇa by the Tibetans. Fa-lan assisted Mātaṅga in his translation of the Sūtra of Forty-two sections, and on the latter's death shortly afterwards, translated five Buddhist works between A.D. 68 and 70.—BN. 379, 380. Rémusat, \*Fouë Kouë Ki\*, 40 ff. Stan. Julien, JA., 4e série, x, 96. Pauthier, JA., 3e série, viii, 267 ff. ### [c5.82](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.82) Ten thousand Jewish refugees, with their families, said to have emigrated from Palestine to the Malabar coast.—JBA. xx, 379. ### [c5.83](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.83) Tuesday, March 3rd. V. Saṁ. 135; epoch of the Śaka or Śālivāhana era, K.Y. 3179 exp. It is, like most of the other eras, lunisolar, and begins with the new moon in the solar month Chaitra.—IA. xvii, 205. ### [c5.84](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.84) (Ś. 9, 11, 18, 28 \[?\], inscriptions from Mathurā, Bhāwalpur, Manikyāla, and Yusufzai.) ### [c5.85](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.85) Kanishka, Kushaṇa, apparently the successor of Hooēmo Kadphises in North-Western India and the Kābul Valley; probably founded the Śaka era, which seems to date from his coronation in A.D. 78. Under this king and his successors the Skythian power reached its zenith. Kanishka's kingdom extended from Kabulistān to Mathurā, and perhaps farther. According to Hiuen Tsang it included a considerable part of Central Asia, while some evidence exists for its having embraced Gujarāt. In the \*Rājatarangiṇī\* Kanishka is mentioned with the kings Hushka (Huvishka) and Jushka, there represented as his predecessors. Al Bīrūnī calls him Kanik, and says that he conquered Kanyākubja. A Buddhist Council was held during Kanishka's reign under the presidency of Vasumitra (Shih-yu).—LIA. ii, 822, 848 ff., and 1202. CASR. ii, 159; iii, 31; v, 57. ASWI. ii, 31. NC., 3rd ser., xii, 48–9. NO., vol. i, 46. Von Sallet, \*Nachfolger Alexanders\*, 57 ff. Drouin, RN., 3e série, t. vi, 31 ff. BMC., \*G.S.K.\*, Int. 1. Beal's \*Si-yu-ki\*, i, 151, etc. Sachau, \*Alberuni's India\*, ii, 11 ff. BD. 26, note 1. IA. vi, 216; x, 213; xvii, 89. JRAS., N.S., xii, 259. Senart, JA., 9e série, vii, 5; viii, 444 ff.; ix, 5 ff. ### [c5.86](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.86) Aśvaghosha, the twelfth Buddhist Patriarch. According to 80 Chinese accounts contemporary with Kanishka. Said to have been a Brahman of Eastern India who, after his conversion by Vasumitra, president of the Buddhist Council, settled in Kashmir. The \*Alaṅkāralikaśāstra\* and the \*Buddhacharitakāvya\*, the latter of which was translated into Chinese about A.D. 414–421, are ascribed to him by I-tsing.—\*Memoranda of the Russian Mission at Pekin\*, ii, 156 ff. Wassiljew, \*Der Buddhismus, seine Dogmen, Geschichte, und Literatur\*, 47, note; 66, 71, 75, 77, 132, 202, 211. Beal, \*Abstract of Four Lectures on Buddhist Literature in China\*, 95. SBE. xix, Int. xxx; xlix, Int. ix. Beal’s \*Si-yu-ki\*, ii, 100, 101, 302. Fuyishama, JA., 8e série, xii, 425. Peterson, JRAS. 1891, 334; and JBRAS. xviii, 284 ff. ### [c5.87](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.87) 83 A. Vir. 609. Rise of the Digambara sect of the Jains under Śivabhūti or Sahasramalla, according to Dharmasāgara’s \*Pravachanaparīkṣā\*.—BR. 1883–4, 144. ### [c5.88](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.88) 89 Indian embassies from the Kushaṇas visit China in the reign of Ho Ti (A.D. 89–106) of the Han dynasty.—JA., 3e série, viii, 266. ### [c5.89](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.89) 111 Ś. 33–51, inscriptions from Mathurā and Wardak. Huvishka (Hooerkes) — Kushaṇa or Turushka, successor of Kanishka in North-Western India and the Kābul Valley.—LIA. ii, 825. CASR. iii, 32 ff. IA. vi, 217, 219. See also under A.D. 78. ### [c5.90](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5.90) 113 Gautamīputra Śātakarṇi, Andhra. Two inscriptions of his occur at Nāsik dated in the years 14 and 24 respectively. He was contemporary with Nahapāna, the Kshaharāta, whom he overthrew shortly before the fourteenth year of his own reign, and after the forty-sixth year of the Kshatrapa or Śaka era, probably therefore about A.D. 126. The inscription at Nāsik dated in the nineteenth year of his son Puḷumāyi, calls Gautamīputra Śātakarṇi the king of Asika, Asaka, Muḷaka, Surāshṭra, Kukura, Aparānta, Anūpa, Vidarbha, Ākara, and Avanti, and lord of the mountains Vindhya, Rikshavat, Pāripātra, Sahya, Krishnagiri, Macha, 113 Siriṭana, Malaya, Mahendra, Seṭagiri, and Chakora. It also states that he humbled the pride of the Kshatriyas, destroyed the Śakas, Yavanas, and Pahlavas, exterminated the Kshaharāta race, and restored the glory of the Sātavāhanas. This is perhaps an allusion to a previous conquest of some of the Andhra territories by Nahapāna, and to their recovery by Gautamīputra. Some of the places enumerated in Puḷumāyi’s inscription as being subject to his father, belonged, as Rishabhadatta’s inscriptions seem to show, to Nahapāna. The Vāyu and Matsya Purāṇas assign Gautamīputra a reign of twenty-one years.—Refs. under B.C. 180. _First 89 of 1,747 passages. [Read on](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5)_ ## Linked texts (82) - [Padmapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.padma) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Bhāgavatapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.bhagavata) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Brahmāṇḍapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.brahmanda) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Rājataraṅgiṇī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.historical.kashmir.rajatarangini) — Kalhaṇa, Sanskrit - [Vāyupurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.vayu) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Matsyapurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.matsya) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [தேவாரம்](https://indike.org/pramana/in.sampradaya.saiva.siddhanta.tirumurai.tevaram) — Tiruñāṉacampantar & Tirunāvukkaracar, Tamil - [Milindapañha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.khuddaka.milindapanha) — Pāli - [Aṣṭādhyāyī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.vyakarana.astadhyayi) — Pāṇini, Sanskrit - [Vākyapadīya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.vyakarana.darsana.vakyapadiya) — Bhartṛhari (grammarian), Sanskrit - [Śiśupālavadha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.krsna.sisupalavadha) — Māgha, Sanskrit - [Dīpavaṃsa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada_postcanon.vamsa.dipavamsa) — Pāli - [Mudrārākṣasa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.plays.rajacarita.mudraraksasa) — Viśākhadatta, Sanskrit - [Gauḍavaho](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.historical.gaudavaho) — Vākpatirāja, Māhārāṣṭrī Prakrit - [Kuṭṭanīmata](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.kama.kuttanimata) — Dāmodaragupta, Sanskrit - [Aśokāvadāna](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.avadana.divyavadana.asokavadana) — Sanskrit - [Kāvyādarśa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.alamkara.sahitya.kavyadarsa) — Daṇḍin, Sanskrit - [Abhidharmakośa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.darsana.abhidharma.abhidharmakosa) — Vasubandhu, Sanskrit - [Daśabhūmikasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.dasabhumika) — Sanskrit - [Daśakumāracarita](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.novels.prasiddha.dasakumaracarita) — Daṇḍin, Sanskrit - [Ἰνδική](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.roman.arrian.indica) — Λούκιος Φλάουιος Ἀρριανός, Ancient Greek - [Mālavikāgnimitra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.plays.udayana.malavikagnimitra) — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit - [Harṣacarita](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.historical.harsacarita) — Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Sanskrit - [Ἀλεξάνδρου ἀνάβασις](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.gr.roman.arrian.anabasis) — Λούκιος Φλάουιος Ἀρριανός, Ancient Greek - [Dhātupāṭha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.vedanga.vyakarana.khila.dhatupatha) — Pāṇini, Sanskrit - [Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.astro.siddhanta.early.brahmasphutasiddhanta) — Brahmagupta, Sanskrit - [Daśasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.prajnaparamita.dasasahasrika) — Sanskrit - [Sarasvatīstotra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.sampradaya.general.devistotra.sarasvati.sarasvatistotra) — Sanskrit - [Ṛtusaṃhāra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.khanda.varnana.rtusamhara) — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit - [Tantravārttika](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darsana.mimamsa.mimamsasutra!sabara!tantravarttika) — Kumārila Bhaṭṭa, Sanskrit - [Sūryaśataka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.stotra.suryasataka) — Mayūra, Sanskrit - [Caṇḍīśataka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.stotra.candisataka) — Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Sanskrit - [Vāsavadattā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.novels.prasiddha.vasavadatta) — Subandhu, Sanskrit - [Laghīyastraya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.jaina.anuyoga.phil.laghiyastraya) — Akalaṅka, Sanskrit - [Kādambarī](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.novels.prasiddha.kadambari) — Bāṇabhaṭṭa, Sanskrit - [Spandakārikā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.sampradaya.saiva.trika.darsana.spanda.spandakarika) — Vasugupta & Bhaṭṭa Kallaṭa, Sanskrit - [Bhaktāmarastotra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.jaina.post.stotra.bhaktamara) — Mānatuṅga, Sanskrit - [Daśabalasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.agama.dasabalasutra) — Sanskrit - [Dhammapadasutta](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.sp.anguttara.4.29) — Pāli - [Aṃga](https://indike.org/pramana/in.jaina.sveta.anga) — Sudharman, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit - [Devīstotra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.sampradaya.general.devistotra) — Sanskrit - [Kalpasūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.jaina.sveta.cheda.1.kalpasutra) — Bhadrabāhu, Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit - [Pañcatantra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.short_stories.pancatantra) — Viṣṇuśarman, Sanskrit - [Raghuvaṃśa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.kavya.mahakavya.rama.raghuvamsa) — Kālidāsa, Sanskrit - [Vinayapiṭaka](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.vp) — Pāli - [Śvetāmbara Āgama](https://indike.org/pramana/in.jaina.sveta) — Ardhamāgadhī Prakrit - [Harivaṃśa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.mahabharata.harivamsa) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Mahāvaṃsa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada_postcanon.vamsa.mahavamsa) — Pāli - [Pramāṇasamuccaya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.darsana.pramana.pramanasamuccaya) — Dignāga, Sanskrit - [Major Rock Edict III](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.asoka.re.re03) — Prakrit - [Pātimokkha](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.theravada.vp.patimokkha) — Pāli - [Sarvāstivāda-vinaya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.vinaya.other-vinayas.sarvastivada) — Classical Chinese - [Viṣṇupurāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.purana.visnu) — Vyāsa, Sanskrit - [Śabdavidyā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.vidya.sabda) — Sanskrit - [玄奘](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.cn.tang.xuanzang) — Classical Chinese - [Alaṅkāraśāstra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.art.alamkara) - [Sukhāvatīvyūha (larger)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.sukhavativyuha) — Sanskrit - [Lohaśāstra (Patañjali)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.med.rasa.loha.lohasastra) — Patañjali, Sanskrit - [義淨](https://indike.org/pramana/inf.cn.tang.yijing) — Classical Chinese - [Major Rock Edict XIII](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.asoka.re.re13) — Prakrit - [Nirvāṇa-sūtra](https://indike.org/pramana/in.bauddha.sanskrit.mahayanasutra.nirvana) — Sanskrit - [Sāñcī](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.sanchi) - [Kâri-Tâlai](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.kari-talai) - [Khoh](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.site.khoh) - [Sangamesvara temple](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.monument.sangamesvara-temple) - [Nyāyaviniścaya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.jaina.anuyoga.phil.nyayaviniscaya) — Akalaṅka, Sanskrit - [Vratakhaṇḍa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.niti.dharma.vrata.vratakhanda) — Hemādri, Sanskrit - [Pañcasiddhāntikā](https://indike.org/pramana/in.astro.siddhanta.early.pancasiddhantika) — Varāhamihira, Sanskrit - [Chachnāma](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.conquest.chachnama) — ʿAlī b. Ḥāmid al-Kūfī - [Mālatīmādhava](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.plays.prakarana.malatimadhava) — Bhavabhūti, Sanskrit - [Prabandhakośa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.historical.jaina.prabandhakosa) — Rājaśekhara Sūri, Sanskrit - [Uttararāmacarita](https://indike.org/pramana/in.lit.plays.rama.uttararamacarita) — Bhavabhūti, Sanskrit - [Baijnāth Praśasti I](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.north.varia.baijnath-prasasti-i) — Sanskrit - [Nyāyakhaṇḍakhādya](https://indike.org/pramana/in.jaina.anuyoga.phil.nyaya.tarka.nyayakhandakhadya) — Yaśovijayagaṇi, Sanskrit - [Laghumānasa](https://indike.org/pramana/in.astro.siddhanta.karana.laghumanasa) — Muñjāla, Sanskrit - [Jhālrāpāṭan inscription (No. II)](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.west.varia.jhalrapatan-inscription-no-ii) — Sanskrit - [Sahasrām edict](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.north.maurya.sahasram-edict) — Prakrit - [Rūpnāth edict (ed. Bühler 1877)](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.north.maurya.minor-rock-edict-of-asoka-rupnath-version*buhler1877) — Prakrit - [Kanheri Inscription (No. 15)](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.deccan.rastrakuta.kanheri-inscription-no-15) — Sanskrit - [Bodh-Gaya Inscription (A) of the Lakshmaṇasēna year 51](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.north.khasa-malla.bodh-gaya-inscription-a-of-the-lakshmanasena-year-51) — Sanskrit - [Paṭṭadakal inscription (No. 481)](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.deccan.pattadakal.pattadakal-inscription-no-481) — Sanskrit - [Badami inscription (No. 350)](https://indike.org/pramana/inp.epigraphy.deccan.badami.badami-inscription-no-350) — Kannada --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.epigraphy.duff-1899.c5) · Pramāṇa