[25] Wilson (Ariana Antiqua, 332–334) identifies the coins marked Basileus Basileon Soter Megas with a king or dynasty of Indian extraction who reigned between Azes and Kadphises (b.c. 50–25), chiefly in the Panjáb. Gardner (British Museum Catalogue, 47) says: The Nameless king is probably cotemporary with Abdagases (a.d. 30–50): he may have been a member of the Kadphises dynasty. Cunningham (Ancient Geography, 245) places the coins of the tribal Yaudheyas in the first century a.d. The remark of Prinsep (Jour. Bengal Soc. VI. 2, 973) that in the Behat group of Buddhist coins some with Baktro-Páli legends have the name Yaudheya in the margin seems to support the suggestion in the text. But the marked difference between the Stag coins of the Yaudheyas (Thomas’ Prinsep, I. Plate V.) and the Nameless king’s coins (Gardner, Plate XIV. 1–6) tells strongly against the proposed identification. Of the Yaudheyas details are given below. [↑]
CHAPTER V.
THE KSHATRAPAS
(b.c. 70–a.d. 398.)
Chapter V.
The Kshatrapas. b.c. 70–a.d. 398. With the Kshatrapas (b.c. 70) begins a period of clearer light, and, at the same time, of increased importance, since, for more than three centuries, the Kshatrapas held sway over the greater part of Western India. Till recently this dynasty was known to orientalists as the Sáh dynasty a mistaken reading of the terminal of their names which in some rulers is Siṃha Lion and in others, as in Rudra Sena (a.d. 203–220) son of Rudra Siṃha, Sena Army.[1]
Two Dynasties.The sway of the rulers who affix the title Kshatrapa to their names extended over two large parts of India, one in the north including the territory from the Kábul valley to the confluence of the Ganges and the Jamná; the other in the west stretching from Ajmir in the north to the North Konkan in the south and from Málwa in the east to the Arabian
Chapter V.
The Kshatrapas. b.c. 70–a.d. 398. Sea in the west. The former may be called the Northern the latter the Western Kshatrapas.
The Name.Besides as Kshatrapa, in the Prákrit legends of coins and in inscriptions the title of these dynasties appears under three forms Chhatrapa,[2] Chhatrava,[3] and Khatapa.[4] All these forms have the same meaning namely Lord or Protector of the warrior-race, the Sanskrit Kshatra-pa.[5] It is to be noted that the title Kshatrapa appears nowhere as a title of any king or royal officer within the whole range of Sanskrit literature, or indeed on any inscription, coin, or other record of any Indian dynasty except the Northern and the Western Kshatrapas. According to Prinsep Kshatrapa is a Sanskritized form of Satrapa, a term familiar to the Grecian history of ancient Persia and used for the prefect of a province under the Persian system of government. As Prinsep further observes Satrapa had probably the same meaning in Ariana that Kshatrapa had in Sanskrit, the ruler feeder or patron of the kshatra or warrior class, the chief of a warlike tribe or clan.[6] Prinsep further notes the Persian kings were often in need of such chiefs and as they entrusted the chiefs with the government of parts of their dominions the word came to mean a governor. So during the anarchy which prevailed on the Skythian overthrow of Greek rule in Baktria[7] (b.c. 160) several chiefs of Malaya, Pallava, Ábhíra, Meda, and other predatory tribes came from Baktria to Upper India, and each established for himself a principality or kingdom. Subsequently these chiefs appear to have assumed independent sovereignty. Still though they often call themselves rájás or kings with the title Kshatrapa or Mahákshatrapa, if any Baktrian king advanced towards their territories, they were probably ready to acknowledge him as Overlord. Another reason for believing these Kshatrapa chiefs to have been foreigners is that, while the names of the founders of Kshatrapa sovereignty are foreign, their inscriptions and coins show that soon after the establishment of their rule they became converts to one or other form of the Hindu religion and assumed Indian names.[8]
Chapter V.
Northern Kshatrapas, b.c. 70–a.d. 78. Northern Kshatrapas, b.c. 70–a.d. 78.According to inscriptions and coins Northern Kshatrapa rule begins with king Maues about b.c. 70 and ends with the accession of the Kushán king Kanishka about a.d. 78. Maues probably belonged to the Śaka tribe of Skythians. If the Maues of the coins may be identified with the Moga of the Taxila plate the date of king Patika in the Taxila plate shows that for about seventy-five years after the death of Maues the date of his accession continued to be the initial year of the dynasty. From their connection with the Śakas, arriving in India during the reign of the Śaka Maues and for nearly three quarters of a century accepting the Śaka overlordship, the Kshatrapas, though as noted above their followers were chiefly Malayas, Pallavas, Ábhíras, and Medas, appear to have themselves come to be called Śakas and the mention of Śaka kings in Puráṇic and other records seems to refer to them. After lasting for about 150 years the rule of the Northern Kshatrapas seems to have merged in the empire of the great Kushán Kanishka (a.d. 78).
Though recently found inscriptions and coins show that the Kshatrapas ruled over important parts of India including even a share of the western seaboard, nothing is known regarding them from either Indian or foreign literary sources. What little information can be gleaned is from their own inscriptions and coins. Of the Northern Kshatrapas this information is imperfect and disconnected. It shows that they had probably three or four ruling branches, one in the Kábul valley, a second at Taxila near Attak on the North-West Panjáb frontier, a third at Behát near Saháranpur or Delhi, and a fourth at Mathurá. The last two were perhaps subdivisions of one kingdom; but probably those at Kábul and at Taxila were distinct dynasties. An inscription found
Chapter V.
Northern Kshatrapas, b.c. 70–a.d. 78. in Mathurá shows a connection either by marriage or by neighbourhood between the Behát and Mathurá branches. This is a Baktro-Páli inscription recording the gift of a stúpa by Nandasiriká daughter of Kshatrapa Rájavula and mother of Kharaosti Yuvarája. Kharaosti is the dynastic name of the prince, his personal name appears later in the inscription as Talama (Ptolemy ?). From his dynastic name, whose crude form Kharaosta or Kharaottha may be the origin of the Prakrit Chhaharáta and the Sanskritised Kshaharáta, this Talama appears to be a descendant of the Kshatrapa Kharaosti whose coins found at Taxila call him Artaputa that is the son of Arta apparently the Parthian Ortus.