Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c17.s3.30

c17.s3.30

The **Drangians**, literally 'lake-dwellers ',² referred to by Justin, inhabited the country about the Hamun lake (*Zareh*) between Areia (Herat), Gedrosia (Baluchistān) and Arachosia (Kandahār) and the desert of Eastern Persia, close to and perhaps including at times within its political boundaries the neighbouring province now called Sīstān or Seistan (Śakasthāna).³ Numismatic evidence indicates that a family whose territory lay mainly in southern Afganisthān, viz., the so-called **dynasty of Vonones**, supplanted Greek rule in a considerable part of the Helmund valley, Ghazni and Kandahār (**Arachosia**). Vonones is a Parthian (Imperial) name. Hence many scholars call his dynasty a Parthian family, and some go so far as to assert that this Vonones is the Arsakid king of that name who reigned from A.D. 8 to 14.⁴ But names are not sure proofs of nationality. Sir R. G. Bhandarkar calls the dynasty Śaka.⁵ The best name for the family would be Drangian, because the chief centre of their power probably lay in the Helmund valley, Arachosia being ruled by a viceroy.¹ On coins Vonones is associated with two princes, *viz.*,