DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9541#0049
INTRODUCTION.
27
the Yuechi and other cognate tribes invaded Sogdiana, and finally
about 120 b.c. conquered the whole of Bactria,1 they opened a new
.chapter in the history of India, the effects of which are felt to the
present day.
It is not yet quite clear how soon after the destruction of the
Bactrian kingdom these Turanian tribes conquered CabuL and occu-
pied the country between that city and the Indus. Certain it is,
however, that they were firmly seated on the banks of that river
before the Christian Era, and under the great king Kanishka had
become an Indian power of very considerable importance. The
date of this king is, unfortunately, one of those small puzzles that
still remain to be solved. Generally, it is supposed he reigned till
about twenty to forty years after Christ.2 Evidence, however, has
lately been brought to light, which seems to prove that he was the
founder of the Saka era, a.d. 7!t, and that his reign must be placed
in the last quarter of the 1st century (if our era, instead of in the
earlier half.3
Be this as it may, it seems quite certain that the power of these
Turuska kings spread over the whole Punjab, and extended as far
at least as Muttra on the Jumna, in the 1st century of the Christian
Era.
At the same time another horde, known to us only from the coins
and inscriptions in which they call themselves Salts or Sab kings,
crossed the Indus lower down, and occupied the whole of the province
of (iujerat. It is not quite clear whether the first of them, Nahapana,
was only the Viceroy of one of these northern kings—probably of
Kanishka himself—though he and his successors afterwards became
independent, and founded a kingdom of their own. They seem to date
their coins and inscriptions from the Saka era, a.d. 79, and tbe
series extends from that date to a.d. 349, or at latest to 371.4 It
thus happens that though Gautamiputra, the Andra king (812-333),
boasts of having humbled them,'' they were only in fact finally disposed
of by the rise of the Cuptas.
No other foreign race, so far as we know, seems to have crossed the
Lower Indus into India. But tbe whole external history of northern
India, from tbe time of Kanishka to that of Ahmed .Shah Durani (17(11)
is a narrative of a continuous succession of tribes of Scythian origin,
1 The best and most accepted account
of these events is found in Vivien de St.
Martin's ' Lcs Huns blancs,' Taris, 1849.
2 Cunningham's ' Numismatic Chron.,'
viii. 175 ; 'Journal of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal,' vii. 704 ; Lassen's ' Iudische
Alterth.,' ii. p. 24.
11 I wrote a paper stating the evidence
in favour of this last view, which I
intended should appear in 1 lie 'Journal
of the Asiatic Society.' Tbe evidence
being, however, incomplete, it has only
been printed for private circulation.
4 'Journal Bombay Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 28.
5 Ibid., vol. v. p. 42.
27
the Yuechi and other cognate tribes invaded Sogdiana, and finally
about 120 b.c. conquered the whole of Bactria,1 they opened a new
.chapter in the history of India, the effects of which are felt to the
present day.
It is not yet quite clear how soon after the destruction of the
Bactrian kingdom these Turanian tribes conquered CabuL and occu-
pied the country between that city and the Indus. Certain it is,
however, that they were firmly seated on the banks of that river
before the Christian Era, and under the great king Kanishka had
become an Indian power of very considerable importance. The
date of this king is, unfortunately, one of those small puzzles that
still remain to be solved. Generally, it is supposed he reigned till
about twenty to forty years after Christ.2 Evidence, however, has
lately been brought to light, which seems to prove that he was the
founder of the Saka era, a.d. 7!t, and that his reign must be placed
in the last quarter of the 1st century (if our era, instead of in the
earlier half.3
Be this as it may, it seems quite certain that the power of these
Turuska kings spread over the whole Punjab, and extended as far
at least as Muttra on the Jumna, in the 1st century of the Christian
Era.
At the same time another horde, known to us only from the coins
and inscriptions in which they call themselves Salts or Sab kings,
crossed the Indus lower down, and occupied the whole of the province
of (iujerat. It is not quite clear whether the first of them, Nahapana,
was only the Viceroy of one of these northern kings—probably of
Kanishka himself—though he and his successors afterwards became
independent, and founded a kingdom of their own. They seem to date
their coins and inscriptions from the Saka era, a.d. 79, and tbe
series extends from that date to a.d. 349, or at latest to 371.4 It
thus happens that though Gautamiputra, the Andra king (812-333),
boasts of having humbled them,'' they were only in fact finally disposed
of by the rise of the Cuptas.
No other foreign race, so far as we know, seems to have crossed the
Lower Indus into India. But tbe whole external history of northern
India, from tbe time of Kanishka to that of Ahmed .Shah Durani (17(11)
is a narrative of a continuous succession of tribes of Scythian origin,
1 The best and most accepted account
of these events is found in Vivien de St.
Martin's ' Lcs Huns blancs,' Taris, 1849.
2 Cunningham's ' Numismatic Chron.,'
viii. 175 ; 'Journal of the Asiatic Society
of Bengal,' vii. 704 ; Lassen's ' Iudische
Alterth.,' ii. p. 24.
11 I wrote a paper stating the evidence
in favour of this last view, which I
intended should appear in 1 lie 'Journal
of the Asiatic Society.' Tbe evidence
being, however, incomplete, it has only
been printed for private circulation.
4 'Journal Bombay Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society,' vol. viii. p. 28.
5 Ibid., vol. v. p. 42.