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XXIX The Date of Kanishka

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

J. H. Marshall
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Extract

In the discussion on the date of Kanishka which took place last year much prominence was given to the so-called Vikrama era of 58 B.C., and arguments were put forward by those who favoured an early date for Kanishka to prove, not only that this era was founded by him, but that all the recorded dates of the Śaka, Pahlava, and Kushan rulers of Northern India are referable to it. Some discoveries which I have recently made at Taxila throw, I think, fresh light on this question, and, though they do not settle precisely the date of Kanishka, appear to prove that he was not at any rate the founder of the era of 58 B.C. and could not have come to the throne until the close of the first century A.D. or later.

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Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 46 , Issue 4 , October 1914 , pp. 973 - 986
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1914

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References

page 977 note 1 Cf. Smith, Vincent, Catalogue of Coins in the. Indian Museum, p. 67Google Scholar, Nos. 17, 22, 24.

page 978 note 1 Cf. Whitehead, R. B., Catalogue of Coins in the Punjab Museum, Lahore, vol. i, p. 180, Nos. 20, 22.Google Scholar

page 978 note 2 Cf. Num. Chron., vol. xii, p. 66, 1892.Google Scholar

page 978 note 3 Thus, within the walls of Sir-kap alone I estimate from my finds up to date that there are not less than 18,000 of his coins hidden within the soil.

page 979 note 1 Cf. Whitehead, R. B., Catalogue of Coins in the Punjab Museum, Lahore, vol. i, p. 150, Nos. 35–8.Google Scholar

page 979 note 2 e.g. twenty-three coins of Gondophernes (with Sasan) in company with four of Azes II (with Aspavarma).

page 980 note 1 Aspabhataputrasa may perhaps be read as Aśpabhrataputrasa, in which case Sasan may have been a nephew of Aśpavarman.

page 980 note 2 The lower half of the second akṣara of this name is somewhat doubtful. Perhaps it may be Sarpedanasa.

page 980 note 3 The reading Satavastrasa is clear, but it is difficult to believe that this is the name of a king.

page 980 note 4 On one of the coins of Sapedanes or Sarpedanes the Greek letters … СΑΡΗΝΔ … are visible.

page 981 note 1 With them were a figure of a winged Aphrodite of gold repoussé, a number of intaglio gems engraved with figures of Eros, Artemis, etc., and other pieces of gold jewellery.

page 981 note 2 Of two types, viz. B.M. Cat., pis. xv, 6, and xxxii, 8.

page 981 note 3 The prevalent view taken by historians and numismatists is that Kadphises I conquered Hermæus circa A.D. 20 or even earlier (cf. Smith, Vincent, The Early History of India, 3rd ed., 1914, p. 236Google Scholar; Rapson, , Indian Coins, p. 16, par. 65).Google Scholar In that case Kadphises I must have been driven back from Taxila and Kabul by Gondophernes. I find nothing to support this supposition.

page 984 note 1 Cf. Cunningham, , ASR., vol. v, pi. xxivGoogle Scholar, which, however, is not entirely accurate. Fergusson's woodcut (ed. 1910, p. 98, fig. 27) is a mere travesty of the original. The attribution of this monument, as it now stands, to the eighth century A.D. or thereabouts is one of the most amazing blunders ever made by Fergusson, as amazing as his attribution of the Dhamekh stūpa at Sārnāth to the eleventh century. The style of the architectural decorations around the plinth and base of the superstructure is precisely that which prevailed at Taxila in the second century A.D., but was completely transformed during the three succeeding centuries.

page 985 note 1 See Fleet, , JRAS, 10, 1913, p. 1009.Google Scholar