It is clear from this that Íśvaradatta’s reign did not last long. His peculiar name and his separate date leave little doubt that he belonged to some distinct family of Kshatrapas. The general style of his coins shows that he cannot have been a late Kshatrapa while the fact that he is called Mahákshatrapa seems to show he was an independent ruler. No good evidence is available for fixing his date. As already mentioned the workmanship of his coins brings him near to Vijayasena (a.d. 238–249). In Násik Cave X. the letters of Inscription XV. closely correspond with the letters of the legends on Kshatrapa coins, and probably belong to almost the same date as the inscription of Rudradáman on the Girnár rock that is to about a.d. 150. The absence of any record of the Ándhras except the name of the king Madharíputa Sirisena or Sakasena (a.d. 180), makes it probable that after Yajñaśrí Gautamíputra (a.d. 150) Ándhra power waned along the Konkan and South Gujarát seaboard. According to the Puráṇas the Ábhíras succeeded to the dominion of the Ándhras. It is therefore possible that the Ábhíra king Íśvarasena of Násik Inscription XV. was one of the Ábhíra conquerors of the Ándhras who took from them the West Dakhan. A migration of Ábhíras from Ptolemy’s Abiria in Upper Sindh through Sindh by sea to the Konkan and thence to Násik is within the range of possibility. About fifty years later king Íśvaradatta[92] who was perhaps of the same family as the Ábhíra king of the Násik inscription seems to have conquered the kingdom of Kshatrapa Vijayasena, adding Gujarát, Káthiáváḍa, and part of the Dakhan to his other territory. In honour of this great conquest he may have taken the title Mahákshatrapa and struck coins in the Gujarát Kshatrapa style but in an era reckoned from the date of his own conquest. Íśvaradatta’s success was shortlived. Only two years later (that is about a.d. 252) the Mahákshatrapa Dámájaḍaśrí won back the lost Kshatrapa territory. The fact that Íśvaradatta’s recorded coins belong to only two years and that the break between the regular
Chapter V.
Western Kshatrapas, a.d. 70–398. Kshatrapas Vijayasena and Dámájaḍaśrí did not last more than two or three years gives support to this explanation.[93]

The following table gives the genealogy of the Western Kshatrapas:
Chapter V.
The Kshatrapa Family Tree.

The Kshatrapa Family Tree.THE WESTERN KSHATRAPAS.

I.
Nahapána,
King, Kshaharáta, Kshatrapa
(a.d. 100–120 ?).
II.
Chashṭana, son of Zamotika,
King, Mahákshatrapa
(a.d. 100–130).
III.
Jayadáman, King, Kshatrapa
(a.d. 130–140).
IV.
Rudradáman,
King, Mahákshatrapa
(a.d. 143–158 circa).
V.
Dámázaḍa orDámájaḍaśrí,
King, Kshatrapa
(a.d. 168 circa).		VII.
Rudrasiṃha,
King, Mahákshatrapa
(a.d. 180–196 circa).
VI.
Jivadáman,
(a.d. 178, a.d. 196 circa).		VIII.
Rudrasena,
King, Mahákshatrapa
(a.d. 200–220 circa).		X.
Saṅghadáman,
King, Mahákshatrapa
(a.d. 222–226 circa).		XI.
Dámasena,
King, Mahákshatrapa
(a.d. 226–236 circa).
IX.
Pṛithivísena, King,Kshatrapa
(a.d. 222 circa).		XII.
DámájaḍaśríII. King, Kshatrapa
(a.d. 232 circa).
XIII.
Víradáman,
King, Kshatrapa
(a.d. 236, 238 circa).		XIV.
Yaśadáman II.
King, Kshatrapa
(a.d. 238, 239 circa).		XV.
Vijayasena,
King, Kshatrapa and Mahákshatrapa
(a.d. 238–249 circa).		XVI.
DámájaḍaśríIII.
King, Mahákshatrapa
(a.d. 251–255 circa).
XVII.
Rudrasena II.
King, Mahákshatrapa
(a.d. 256–272 circa).
XVIII.
Viśvasiṃha,
King, Kshatrapa
(a.d. 272–278 circa).		XIX.
Bharttṛidáman,
King, Kshatrapa and Mahákshatrapa
(a.d. 278–294 circa).
XX.
Viśvasena,
King, Kshatrapa
(a.d. 296–300 circa).
XXI.
Rudrasiṃha son of SvámiJívadáman,
King, Kshatrapa
(a.d. 308, 309, 318 circa).
XXII.
Yaśadáman II. King, Kshatrapa
(a.d. 318 circa).		XXIII.
Dámasiri, King, Mahákshatrapa
(a.d. 320 circa).
XXIV.
Svámi Rudrasena III.
King, Mahákshatrapa son of king Mahákshatrapa,Svámi Rudradáma,
(a.d. 348, 366–376circa).
XXV.
Svámi Rudrasena IV.
King, Mahákshatrapa, son of king Mahákshatrapa,Svámi Satyasena,
(a.d. 378–388 circa).
XXVI.
Svámi Siṃhasena
King, Mahákshatrapa, sister’s son of king Mahákshatrapa SvámiRudrasena (XXV).
XXVII.
Skanda ——?

[1] Journal Bengal Asiatic Society (1835), 684; (1837), 351; (1838), 346; Thomas’ Prinsep’s Indian Antiquities, I. 425–435, II. 84–93; Thomas in Journal Royal Asiatic Society (Old Series), XII. 1–72; Wilson’s Ariana Antiqua, 405–413; Journal B. B. R. A. S. VI. 377, VII. 392; Burgess’ Archæological Report of Káthiáwár and Kachh, 18–72; Journal B. B. R. A. S. XII. (Proceedings), XXIII.; Indian Antiquary, VI. 43, X. 221–227.

The dynasty of the Kshatrapas or Mahákshatrapas of Sauráshṭra was known to Prinsep (J. R. A. S. Bl. VII.–1. (1837), 351) to Thomas (J. R. A. S. F. S. XII. 1–78), and to Newton (Jl. B. B. R. A. S. IX. 1–19) as the Sah or Sâh kings. More recently, from the fact that the names of some of them end in Sena or army, the Kshatrapas have been called the Sena kings. The origin of the title Sah is the ending siha, that is siṃha lion, which belongs to the names of several of the kings. Síha has been read either sáh or sena because of the practice of omitting from the die vowels which would fall on or above the top line of the legend and also of omitting the short vowel i with the following anusvára. Sáh is therefore a true reading of the writing on certain of the coins. That the form Sáh on these coins is not the correct form has been ascertained from stone inscriptions in which freedom from crowding makes possible the complete cutting of the above-line marks. In stone inscriptions the ending is síha lion. See Fleet’s Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, III. 36 note 1. Mr. Fleet (Ditto) seems to suggest that with the proof of the incorrectness of the reading Sáh the evidence that the Kshatrapas were of Indo-Skythian origin ceases. This does not seem to follow. In addition to the Parthian title Kshatrapa, their northern coinage, and the use of the Śaka (a.d. 78) era, now accepted as the accession of the great Kushán Kanishka, the evidence in the text shows that the line of Káthiáváḍa Kshatrapas starts from the foreigner Chashṭana (a.d. 130) whose predecessor Nahápana (a.d. 120) and his Śaka son-in-law Ushavadatta are noted in Násik inscriptions (Násik Gazetteer, 538 and 621) as leaders of Śakas, Palhavas, and Yavanas. Further as the limits of Ptolemy’s (a.d. 150) Indo-Skythia (McCrindle, 136) agree very closely with the limits of the dominions of the then ruling Mahákshatrapa Rudradáman (a.d. 150) it follows that Ptolemy or his informer believed Rudradáman to be an Indo-Skythian. There therefore seems no reasonable doubt that the Kshatrapas were foreigners. According to Cunningham (Num. Chron. VIII. 231) they were Śakas who entered Gujarát from Sindh. The fact that the Kushán era (a.d. 78) was not adopted by the first two of the Western Kshatrapas, Chashṭana and Jayadáman, supports the view that they belonged to a wave of northerners earlier than the Kushán wave. [↑]

[2] The Taxila plate in Journal R. A. S. (New Series), IV. 487; the Baktro-Páli on Nahapána’s coins also gives the form Chhatrapa. [↑]

[3] Chhatrava appears in an unpublished Kshatrapa inscription from Mathurá formerly (1888) in Pandit Bhagvánlál’s possession. [↑]