Indian Epigraphy c15.t5.30

c15.t5.30

In this connection we have to take notice of another reckoning instituted by a foreign dynasty. It is the era of Kaniṣka I, i.e. the regnal reckoning of a Kuṣāṇa king of that name continued by his successors. The evidence of palaeography and the known facts of early Indian history suggest that the epoch of the Kaniṣka era, i.e. the first regnal year of Kaniṣka, has to be assigned to a date considerably later than the epoch of the Scytho-Parthian reckoning. Kaniṣka’s era seems to have been founded in order to replace the older Scytho-Parthian era used by the Scytho-Parthians and the early Kuṣāṇas. A few dates from the records of the Kaniṣka group of Kuṣāṇa kings may be cited.