Indian Epigraphy c16.s3.17

c16.s3.17

³ Ibid., p. 138, *Proc. IHC*, 1958, Trivandrum, p. 63. The popularity of the designation *Daṇḍanāyaka* in Kuṣāṇa administration may tempt one to regard it as a translation of Greek *Strategos*. But, in that case, it would be the only title of foreign origin that became popular in South India. It may be noticed that other official designations of foreign origin such as *Gañjavara*, *Pilupati*, *Divrapati*, *Sarabhaṅga*, etc., are found in the records of the northern regions of India and did not become popular in the South. See *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXXV, pp. 95ff. Of course it may be said that the administration of the Śakas of Western India influenced to some extent the western areas of the Deccan and that the Ābhīra king Vasuṣeṇa of the North-Western Deccan conquered as far as the Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh, whose Nagarjunikonda inscription of the year 30 [probably of the Ābhīra era of 248 A.D.] mentions an officer enjoying the designations *Mahāgrāmika*, *Mahātalavara* and *Mahādaṇḍanāyaka* (ibid., Vol. XXXIV, pp. 197 ff.). But the fact cannot be ignored that a *Daṇḍanāyaka-Balādhikṛta* is mentioned in the Gunji (Raigarh District, Madhya Pradesh) inscription of about the first century A.D. (*Ep. Ind.*, Vol. XXVII, pp. 48 ff.; *JAS*, Letters, Vol. XIX, pp. 59 ff.).