The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c31.59

v1.c31.59

This remarkable monument of the rule of the Çakas in the south-eastern extremity of their dominions was discovered at Mathurā by an Indian scholar, Pandit Bhagvānāl Indrājī, in 1869, and was bequeathed by him to the British Museum on his death in 1888. It is of the local red sandstone, and represents two lions reclining back to back and facing in the same direction. Its style is strikingly Irānian. The capital must originally have surmounted a pillar, and must itself have supported some religious emblem; but its purpose had long ago been forgotten; and when it was discovered it was built into the steps of an altar devoted to the worship of Çītalā, the goddess of small-pox. The Kharoshṭhī inscriptions with which the surface is completely covered associate in the religious merit of the foundation the donor herself (the Chief Queen of the Great Satrap Rājūla) and all the members of her family together with certain contemporary satraps governing other provinces of the Çaka realm and other eminent personages of the time. The Great Satrap Rājūla, whose name appears as Rājuvula in other inscriptions, is unquestionably the Rañjubula who, both as satrap and as great satrap, struck coins in imitation of those of Strato I and Strato II, the last of the Yavana kings to reign in the E. Punjab (Pl. VII, 24); and he was the father of Çoḍāsa in whose reign as satrap the monument was erected. Subsequently Çoḍāsa himself appears as great satrap on the Āmohinī votive tablet at Mathurā, which is dated in the second month of Winter of the year 42. As the month is thus recorded in an Indian style, the era must probably also be Indian; and if, as seems likely, it is the era of Azes (58 B.C.), we may conclude that Çoḍāsa was great satrap in 17–16 B.C.