The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c31.102

v1.c31.102

The chronology of this period has been one of the most perplexing problems in the whole of Indian history; and the problem can scarcely be said to be solved positively even now; that is to say, it has not yet been placed beyond all possibility of doubt. But the evidence obtained by Sir John Marshall from his excavations of the ancient sites of Takshaçilā proves conclusively that the period of Kanishka's reign must have been somewhere about the end of the first century a.d.; and a comparison of this evidence with the statements of Chinese historians and with the dates supplied by inscriptions makes it seem almost certain that Kanishka was the founder of the well-known era which began in 78 a.d.