Materials for the Study of the Early History of the Vaishnava Sect c8.129

c8.129

Gotamī Balasirī and the Great Satrap Rudradāman and from the Pārasīkas by the poets of the Mahābhārata and by Visākha-datta, the author of the Mudrā-rākshasa (Act 2,—Astitāvachchhaka-Yavana-Kirāta Kāmboja-Pārasīka-Vālhika-prabhṛitibhiḥ . . . . . samantāduparuddhaṁ Kusumapuram). If Tushāspha was an Iranian, it may with equal reason be argued that Vāsudeva, the successor of Huvishka, and Suviśākha, the Parthian Governor of Rudradāman, were native Hindus of India. Kālidāsa (Raghuvamśa, IV, 60 ff.) has been relied-on by some to establish the equation Yavana=Pārasīka. But the Yavanas of Raghu, IV, 61 have been mentioned in connection with the land-route (Sthala-vartma leading to the "western" realm which was the country of the Persians. Raghu's army, avoiding the sea-route, had suddenly overspread the Yavana country (apparently in the Kābul valley) like a mass of clouds and thence proceeded to the land of the śmaśrula westerners, i.e., the Persians.