The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s3.154

c8.s3.154

¹ Prof. Oldenberg thinks Kanishka to be the founder of the era; but this view is, I think, untenable. (1)—A dynasty of three kings only cannot perpetuate an era. The dynasty of the Guptas composed of seven kings was in power for more than a hundred and fifty years, but their era died a natural death in the course of a few centuries. (2)—The characters in Kanishka’s inscriptions, especially the ya as conjoined with a preceding consonant, are later than those we find in the first century. One has simply to compare Inscription No. 1 in Plate XIII. of the third volume of General Cunningham’s Arch. Reports with No. 4 to see the great difference in the forms of the letters in the times of the earliest Kshatrapas and of Kanishka. The former belongs to the time of the Kshatrapa Śoḍâsa and the letters are almost like those we find in Ushavadâta’s inscriptions at Nâsik; whilst those in the latter, which is dated in the ninth