Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c18.s2.18

c18.s2.18

Epigraphic (and in some cases numismatic) evidence proves that the Pahlava or Parthian rule in Afghanistān, the Pañjāb and Sind was supplanted by that of the Kushaṇa, Gushaṇa, Khushaṇa or **Kushān**¹ dynasty. We know that Gondophernes was ruling in Peshāwar in the year 103 (A.D. 47 according to Fleet, somewhat earlier according to others). But we learn from the Panjtar inscription that in the year 122 the sovereignty of the region had passed to a Gushaṇa or Kushān king.² In the year 136 the Kushān suzerainty had extended to Taxila. An inscription of that year mentions the interment of some relics of the Buddha in a chapel at Taxila "*for bestowal of perfect health upon the Mahārāja, rājātirāja devaputra Khushaṇa.*" The Sui Vihār and Mahenjo Daro Kharoshṭhī Inscriptions prove the Kushān conquest of the Lower Indus Valley. The Chinese writer Pan-ku, who died in A.D. 92, refers to the Yueh-chi occupation of Kao-fou or Kābul. This shows that the race to which the Kushāns belonged took possession of Kābul before A. D. 92. It is, no doubt, asserted by a later writer that Kao-fou is a mistake for Tou-mi. But the mistake in Kennedy’s opinion would not have been possible, had the Yueh-chi not been in possession of Kao-fou in the time of Pan-ku.¹ The important thing to remember is that a Chinese writer of 92 A.D., thought Kao-fou to have been a Yueh-chi possession long before his time. If Sten Konow is to be believed, the Kushāns had established some sort of connection with the Indian borderland as early as the time of Gondophernes. In line 5 of the Takht-i-Bāhī inscription Sten Konow reads “*erjhuṇa Kapasa puyae*,”² “in honour of prince Kapa,” *i.e.*, Kujūla Kadphises, the Kushān king, who is said to have succeeded Hermaios in the Kābul valley. Kujūla Kadphises has been identified with the Kuei-shuang (Kushān) prince K’iu-tsiu-k‘io who took possession of Kao-fou (Kābul), Po-ta and Ki-pin. It appears from numismatic evidence that this Kushān chief³ was possibly an ally of Hermaios with whom he appears to have issued joint coins.⁴ Kadphises seems also to have been at first on friendly terms with the Parthian rulers of Gandhāra. But the destruction of Hermaios' kingdom by the Parthians¹ probably supplied him with a *casus belli*. He made war on the latter and eventually destroyed their power in the north-west borderland of India.