The Early History of the Deccan (Parts I–XI) v1.c7.s6.98

v1.c7.s6.98

Puḷumāvi is styled Dakshiṇāpatheśvara in Gotami-Balaśrī’s inscription dated in his 19th regnal year = A.D. 105. He was entitled to that biruda on the ground of his father’s conquests. Personally he achieved nothing. His vast inheritance was not entirely a blessing since it necessarily involved much additional responsibility. The unsettled conditions which prevailed in the north, due to the coming of the Kushāṇas and the perpetual rivalries of the Śaka Kshatrapas, had to some extent facilitated Gautamīputra’s victories. Thus at the time of Puḷumāvi’s accession to the throne we find the Kushāṇas fairly settled in North-west India and extending their suzerainty over Śaka Satrapies to the east and south. By A.D. 89, the date of the Sui Vihār inscription, Kanishka had imposed his authority over the lower Indus country and in his year 23 (78+23 = A.D. 101), his sovereignty was already acknowledged in Mathurā.⁵ The very next year his son Vāsishka appears as reigning at Mathurā. V. A. Smith assumes that Vāsishka and Huvishka were both sons of Kanishka and that with Vāsishka predeceasing his father, Huvishka succeeded to the whole empire of Kanishka.¹ Huvishka’s epigraphs show him as ruler of Mathurā between the years 33 and 60 (= A.D. 111-38).