Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c18.s1.34

c18.s1.34

Princes bearing Śaka names are mentioned in several inscriptions discovered in Taxila, Mathurā and Western India. According to Dr. Thomas "whatever Śaka dynasties may have existed in the Pañjāb or India, reached India neither through Afghānistān nor through Kaśmīra but, as Cunningham contended, by way of Sindh and the valley of the Indus."² This theory cannot be accepted in its entirety in view of the inadequate representation of Sind by Śaka coins, the Chinese account of the Śaka occupation of Kipin and the epigraphic evidence regarding the existence of a Scythian Satrapy at Kāpiśi and a Śaka principality in the Hazāra country.¹ We cannot also overlook the fact that some of the Śaka names hitherto discovered are those of the Northern Śakas who lived near the Sogdianoi.² The names Maues, Moga³ and Mevaki,⁴ for instance, are variants of the Śaka name Mauakes. We learn from Arrian that a chief named Mauakes or Movaces led the "Sacians (Śakas), a Scythian tribe belonging to the Scythians who dwelt in Asia," who lived outside the jurisdiction of the Persian governor of the Bactrians and the Sogdianians, but were in alliance with the Persian king. Chhaharata, Khakharāta or Kshaharāta, the family designation of several satrapal houses of Taxila, Mathurā, Western India and the Deccan, is perhaps equivalent to **Karatai** the name of a Śaka tribe of the North.⁵