The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c28.46

c28.46

The steady advance of the victorious Chinese evidently alarmed the Kushān king, presumably Kadphises II, who regarded himself as the equal of the emperor, and had no intention of accepting the position of a vassal. Accordingly, in A. D. 90,¹ he boldly asserted his equality by demanding a Chinese princess in marriage. General Pan-chao, who considered the proposal an affront to his master, arrested the envoy and sent him home. Kadphises II, unable to brook this treatment, equipped a formidable force of 70,000 cavalry under the command of his viceroy Si, which was dispatched across the Tsung-ling range, or Tāghdumbāsh Pāmīr, to attack the Chinese. The army of Si probably advanced by the Tāshkurghān Pass, some fourteen thousand feet high,² and was so shattered by its sufferings during the passage of the mountains, that when it emerged into the plain below, either that of Kāshgar or Yārkand, it fell an easy prey to Pan-chao, and was totally defeated. Kadphises II was compelled to pay tribute to China, and the Chinese annals record the arrival of several missions bearing tribute at this period.³