The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c26.s1.74

c26.s1.74

¹ The coins and inscription give the king's name in sundry variant forms (in the genitive case)—as Gondopharēs, Guduphara, Gudapharna, &c. The inscription, which was found at Takht-i-Bahai, NE. of Peshāwar, is dated in the 26th year of the Maharaya Guduphara, in the year 103 of an unspecified era. The archaeological evidence for the reign is discussed by Von Sallet (*Nachfolger Alexanders des Grossen*); Percy Gardner (*B. M. Catal. Coins of Greek and Scythic Kings of India*); Senart (*Notes d'épigraphie indienne*, No. iii, p. 11); V. A. Smith ('The Kushān period of Indian History', in *J. R. A. S.*, 1903, p. 40); and many other writers. Mr. R. D. Banerji believes the date 103 to refer to the Śaka era and so to be equivalent to A. D. 181, basing his opinion chiefly on characteristics of the Kharoshṭhī script in the inscriptions, and partly on an interpretation of Parthian history (*Ind. Ant.*, 1908, pp. 47, 62). But the history of Parthia is too imperfectly known to be of much help, and Kharoshṭhī palaeography needs further study. I am not convinced of the alleged late date for Gondopharēs which is not accepted by Sir J. H. Marshall. The stratification at Taxila shows that Gondopharēs preceded Kadphises I.