Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c18.s3.96

c18.s3.96

It is not improbable that Kanishka was the Kushān king repulsed by general Pan-ch'ao during the reign of the Emperor Ho-ti (A.D. 89-105). It has no doubt been argued that Kanishka "must have been a monarch of some celebrity and if the Chinese had come into victorious contact with him, their historians would have mentioned it." But if we identify Pan-ch'ao's Kushān contemporary with Kadphises II, the silence of the Chinese becomes still more mysterious and inexplicable because he was certainly well-known to the annalists. On the other hand, Kanishka was not known to them and the non-mention of his name, if he were Pan-ch'ao's contemporary, cannot be more surprising than that of his predecessor, Wema. In favour of Kanishka's identity with Pan-ch'ao's antagonist we may urge that Kanishka is known to have come into conflict with the Chinese, but the same cannot be said with regard to Wema, the events of whose reign, as recorded by Chinese annalists, do not include a first class war with China. The legend of Kanishka's death published by S. Lévi contains a significant passage which runs thus:—"‘I have subjugated three regions; all men have taken refuge with me, the region of the north alone has not come in to make its submission.’"¹ Have we not here a covert allusion to his failure in the encounter with his mighty northern neighbour?