Indian Epigraphy c15.t5.13

c15.t5.13

We have seen that the Parthians had an era of their own. It is interesting to note that several epigraphic records discovered in the north-western part of India appear to have been actually dated according to the Parthian era of 248 B.C.³ The Scythians on the other hand lived for some time on their way to India in the eastern provinces of the old Greek empire where they must have been acquainted with both the Seleucid and Parthian eras. It is therefore not at all curious that documents of the time of the Scytho-Parthian rulers of North-Western Bhāratavarṣa are found to be dated in an era unlike the indigenous Indian records dated in regnal reckoning.⁴ There is no doubt that the epoch of the Scytho-Parthian era falls later than that of the Parthian era. It also appears that its use became popular in the age of the Scytho-Parthians who succeeded the Indo-Bactrians, i.e. probably after the second century B.C. A few dates may be quoted from the documents of the Scytho-Parthian rulers of India.