Ancient History of the Deccan c3.s4.68

c3.s4.68

The preceding lines had already been written when I had the honour of receiving from Mr. Vincent A. Smith a copy of “The Oxford History of India,” Oxford, 1919, and I read in page 127 : “It may now be affirmed with confidence that the order of the five leading Kuṣâṇ kings is finally settled, and that the uncertainty as to the chronology has been reduced to a period of forty years in round numbers or to state it otherwise, the question is, “Did Kaniṣka come to the throne in A. D. 78, or about forty years later?”. When the third edition of the “Early History of India” was published in 1914, my narrative was based upon the working hypothesis that Kaniṣka’s accession took place in A. D. 78, although it was admitted to be possible that the true date might be later. Further consideration of the evidence from Taxila now available leads me to follow Sir John Marshall and Professor Sten Konow in dating the beginning of Kaniṣka’s reign approximatively in A. D. 120, a date which I had advocated many years ago on different grounds”.