Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c18.s2.2

c18.s2.2

Already in the time of Eukratides, Mithradates I, King of Parthia (*c.* 171-138/37 B.C.), had probably conquered portions of the Pañjāb or Sind, and in the days of the Śaka Emperors of the family of Maues-Moga, princes of mixed Śaka-Pahlava origin ruled as Satraps in Northern India. But it is important to note that Isidore of Charax, possibly a younger contemporary of Augustus, who wrote not earlier than 26 B.C. (reign of Phraates IV and the revolt of Tiridates) and is quoted by Pliny, does not include the Kābul Valley, Sind or the Western Pañjāb within the empire of the Parthians or Pahlavas. The easternmost provinces of the Parthian empire mentioned by that writer are Herat (Aria), Farah (the country of the Anauoi, a segment of Aria (i.e., the Herat Province), the districts between the Lake Hamun and the Helmund (Drangiana and Sakasthāna), and Kandahār (Arachosia or "White India"). Towards the middle of the first century A.D., however, Śaka sovereignty in parts of Gandhāra must have been supplanted by that of the Parthians. In 43-44 A.D., when Apollonios of Tyana is reputed to have visited Taxila, the throne was occupied by Phraotes, evidently a Parthian.² He was however independent of Vardanes, the great King of Babylon and Parthia (*c.* 39-47/48 A.D.)³, and himself powerful enough to exercise suzerain power over the “Satrap of the Indus.” Christian writers refer to a king of India named Gundaphar or Gūdnaphar and his brother Gad who are said to have been converted by the Apostle St. Thomas and who, therefore, lived in the first century A.D.¹ We have no independent confirmation of the story of the biographer of Apollonios. But the “so-called” Takht-i-Bāhī record of the year 103 (of an unspecified era) shows that there was actually in the Peshāwar district a king named **Guduvhara** (**Gondophernes**). The names of Gondophernes and, in the opinion of some scholars, of his brother Gad, are also found on coins.² According to Rapson the two brothers were associated as sub-kings under the suzerainty of Orthagnes (Verethragna). Sten Konow, however, identifies Orthagnes with Guduvhara himself, while Herzfeld suggests that he was the “unnamed son of Vardanes, mentioned by Tacitus, who claimed the throne against Volagases I about A.D. 55.”³ Dr. Fleet referred the date of the Takht-i-Bahaī (Bāhī) inscription to the Mālava-Vikrama era, and so placed the record in A.D. 47.⁴ He remarked “there should be no hesitation about referring the year 103 to the established Vikrama era of B.C. 58; instead of having recourse, as in other cases too, to some otherwise unknown era beginning at about the same time. This places Gondophernes in A.D. 47 which suits exactly the Christian tradition which makes him a contemporary of St. Thomas, the Apostle.''