The Vakataka–Gupta Age (circa 200–550 A.D.) c8.s3: 3. The Period of Sassanian Ascendancy
The Vākāṭaka–Gupta Age (circa 200–550 A.D.) c8.s3
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3. The Period of Sassanian Ascendancy
c8.s3.1
The Kushāṇo-Sassanian coinage² issued by the Sassanian viceroys was current only in Balkh, Merv and Samarkand; its specimens are not to be found in Afghanistan, Seistan or the Punjab (Pl. I, 3). It is, therefore, clear that for some time the Sassanians were content to occupy only the home provinces of the Kushāṇas. Their titles on the coins, ‘the king of the Kushāṇas’ and ‘the king of kings of the Kushāṇas’ would further indicate that the Sassanians did not drive the Kushāṇs out of Bactria, but only established their suzerainty over that province. Very probably some Kushāṇa chiefs may have continued to rule as their feudatories.
c8.s3.2
² These coins are called Kushāṇo-Sassanian because the obverse is n imitation of the Sassanian coins and the reverse of the Kushāṇa coins. Cunningham had described them as Scytho-Sassanian, but Kushāṇo-Sassanian is no doubt a more accurate term.
c8.s3.3
The conquest of some Indian provinces of the Kushāṇa empire was attempted and accomplished by the Sassanian emperor Varahran II. This ruler succeeded in annexing Afghanistan, North-Western Frontier Province, Seistan and Sindh to the Sassanian empire by *c.* 284 A.D. Varahran II now transferred the crown prince Varahran III to Seistan as its Governor with the privilege of issuing coins with the title *Sakān Shāh*, the king of the Sakas. We can understand the significance of this title of the crown-prince when we remember that Saka chiefs were in power in Sindh and Seistan for about two hundred years. The Punjab was not conquered by the Sassanians; their coins are but rarely found in that province.
c8.s3.4
Afghanistan and the Indus valley continued to be under the Sassanian rule for about 80 years down to *c.* 360 A.D. There were frequent wars of succession during this period and therefore it was at one time thought that the Sassanian rule in the Indus valley must have been very short-lived. Inscriptions recently discovered at Persepolis show, however, that even in 310-1, A.D., when the reigning Sassanian emperor Shapur II was only a baby, his elder brother continued to rule in Seistan enjoying the titles, King of Sakastān, Minister of ministers of Sindh, Sakastān and Tukhāristān. The Sassanian rule in these regions was well established and organised ; for the Persepolis inscription discovered by Herzfeld refers to a High Judge at Kabul and a Minister of Public Instruction in Sakastān (*Sakastān andarzbed*).¹
c8.s3.5
¹ Herzfeld, *Op. cit.* pp. 35-6.
c8.s3.6
We must, however, note that during the period of Sassanian ascendancy in Afghanistan and the Indus valley, some Śaka and Kuṣāṇa chiefs continued to rule as petty feudatories. Thus there was a feudatory Kuṣāṇa family ruling at Kabul; for the wife of the Sassanian emperor Hormuzd II (303-309 A.D.) was a Kuṣāṇa princess belonging to that family. It is quite possible that there may have been other Kuṣāṇa and Śaka feudatories in the Indus valley as well.