The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c12.2

v1.c12.2

The title "King of Kings" is Iranic in origin. Scholars have traced it to the epithet '*Khshāyathiya Khshāyathiānām*,' occurring in the opening lines of the Behistum inscription of the Achaemenian Emperor Darius I (521-485 B.C.).¹ Under the Greek form, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ, it definitely appears on the coin legends of the Arsacid king Mithradates II (*c.* 123-88 B.C.).² This Greek legend together with its Indian forms *rajatiraja*, *rajaraja*, and *rajadiraja*, appears on the coins of the Indo-Scythian³ and early Kuṣān kings. The Persian form þAONANO þAO in Greek characters is first found in India on the coins of Kaniṣka and his successors.⁴ A portion of this legend, þAO, is also found on some of the copper coins of Kaniṣka.⁵ These titles appear to have been the special designation of these Turkish rulers of the Punjab, Afghanistan and the Oxus valley, long after the fall of their empire in the beginning of the 3rd century A.D.⁶ In the fourth century, Hariṣeṇa in his Allahabad *praśasti* of the Gupta emperor Samudra Gupta (*c.* 335-375 A.D.) undoubtedly refers to these rulers by the phrase '*Daivaputra-ṣāhi-ṣāhānuṣāhi*.'⁷ The coins issued by these later Kuṣāns between *c.* 300 to 450 A.D. also bear the legend þANANO þAO.⁸