Tribes in Ancient India c19.12

c19.12

By the middle of the second century B.C. the Ābhīras and their country must have been overpowered by the Bactrian Greeks who, not long after the expedition of Antiochus the Great (Antiochus III of Syria, 223—187 B.C.), had planned to extend their kingdom to the south of the Hindu Kush. It seems that these Bactrian Greeks occupied the whole of the country which Ptolemy designates as Indo-Scythia, and which included Aberia or Abiria. In Ptolemy’s time, however, the Abiria or Ābhīra country was ruled over by the Śaka rulers or Kṣatrapas of W. India, who seem to have held sway over the entire realm of Indo-Scythia (cf. the Junāgaḍh Inscription of the Śaka ruler Rudradāman who flourished in the second century A.D.; *Ep. Ind.*, Vol. VIII, pp. 36ff.). The Guṇḍa Inscription of the Śaka king Rudra Siṃha (A.D. 181), who was third in succession from Rudradāman, refers to an Ābhīra general named Rudrabhūti who excavated a tank in his realm. Shortly afterwards³ we find a certain Īśvaradatta, who was probably a native of Ābhīra, holding the office of Mahākṣatrapa. It is likely that Īśvaradatta was the same person as Īśvarasena,⁴ an Ābhīra king (son of Śivadatta), who became Mahākṣatrapa of W. India and wrested from the Sātavāhanas, probably in the third century A.D., portions at least of Mahārāṣṭra, which was ruled over by them up till the reign of Yajñaśrī Sātakarṇi.