Ancient History of the Deccan c3.s4.2

c3.s4.2

In the II century B. C. the Śaka tribe that came from the north entered into Northern India; from that time they were intimately connected with another tribe, the Parthians, and had close relationship with Persia. In the history of India, the names of Śakas, Pahlavas and Yavanas are mentioned simultaneously and denote those foreigners that came from the north-western frontier. It is probably about 100 B. C. that one of these princes reigned at Taxila under the name of Maues. Later on, about 60 B. C., Azes. I ascended the throne. This king probably had a long and glorious reign. It was perhaps in his time that the Parthians and the Sakas conquered almost the whole of northern India and a portion of the Deccan. When the Indo-Parthian kings Azes I, Azilises, Azes II, Gondopharnes were reigning over the Panjâb, the rest of the empire was governed by more or less independent princes who bore the title of Kshatrâpas and Mahâkshatrapaa. In the province surrounding the Gulf of Cambay (Surâshtrs, Ujjain, Aparânta) there reigned the Śaka kings who were called Bhûmaka and Nahapâna. The Śakas called Hagâna, Hagâmâsha, Râjuvula, Soḍâsa, Kharahostes and Kalni reigned at Mathurâ in the valley of the Ganges. The Śakas (Bhûmaka, Nahapâna) that reigned over the country round the Gulf of Cambay (in Surâshṭra, Ujjain and Northern Deccan) belonged to the same family as the Śakas (Râjûvula, Soḍâsa) of Mathurâ; this family was that of the Kshaharatas. In fact, the Nâsik inscriptions say that the Śakas who reigned in Northern Deccan belonged to the dynasty of the Kshaharatas and, they have discovered in 1910-1911 at Gaṇêshrâ (3 miles west of Mathurâ, in mound No. 2 (See J. R. A. S., year 1912, p. 122) a fragment of an inscription (fig. II, plate II) which contains clearly the word "Kshaharatasa".