The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c28.93

c28.93

Just as the writers of edifying books sought to enhance the glory of Asoka's conversion to the creed of the mild Sākya sage by blood-curdling tales of the king's fiendish cruelty during the days of his unbelief, so Kanishka was alleged to have had no faith either in right or wrong, and to have lightly esteemed the law of Buddha during his earlier life.¹ The most authentic evidence on the subject of his changes of faith is afforded by the long and varied series of his coins, which, like most ancient coinages, reflect the religious ideas both of the monarch in whose name they were struck, and of the peoples whom he subdued. The finest, and presumably the earliest, pieces bear legends, Greek in both script and language, with effigies of the sun and moon personified under their Greek names, Hēlios and Selēnē.² On later issues the Greek script is retained, but the language is Khotanese, a form of old Iranian, while the deities depicted are a strange medley of the gods worshipped by Greeks, Persians, and Indians.³ The rare coins exhibiting images of Buddha Sākyamuni with his name in Greek letters are usually considered to be among the latest of the reign, but they are well executed, and may be earlier in date than is generally supposed.⁴ Although it is impossible to fix the exact date of Kanishka's conversion, the event evidently did not occur until he had been for some years on the throne.