The Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency from the Earliest Historical Times to the Musalman Conquest c8.s3.155

c8.s3.155

year of Kanishka, are considerably later; and both the inscriptions exist in Mathurâ. (3)—There is no ground to believe that Kanishka reigned over Gujarât and Mahâ-râshtra, but the Saka era began to be used very early, especially in the last country. (4)—The Guptas whose gold coinage is a close imitation of that of the Indo-Scythian dynasty, came to power in A.D. 319: while the last of the three kings Kanishka, Hushka, and Vâsudeva must, if the reign of the first began in A.D. 78, have ceased to reign about A.D. 178, i.e., about 100 years after the foundation of the dynasty. And the latest date of Vâsudeva is 89. If so, an interval of 140 years must have elapsed between the last of the Indo-Scythian kings and the first Gupta; but the close resemblance in the coinage necessitates the supposition that it was much shorter. Albiruni's statement that the initial date of the Gupta era was 241 Saka, i.e., 319 A.D., has been pronounced unreliable by some antiquarians. As to this point and the era of the Satrap dates, see Appendix A.