the type may be seen in Fig. 22, Plate xviii. of Wilson's "Ariana Antiqua." On the obverse, under the Raja's arm, is written Nára, and on the reverse, Báladitya. The small silver coin Fig. 19, Plate xv. of the same work, most probably also belongs to Nara. I read the legend: - Paramadhi Raja Sri NARA-GUPTA Baladitya. 6. As the correct determination of the epoch of the Gupta dynasty is of the first importance to the religious as well as to the political history of ancient India, it becomes necessary to examine the chronology which Mr. E. Thomas, with much critical skill and ingenuity, has proposed for the Sáh kings of Gujrat and the Gupta princes of Magadha.* We agree as to the facts, but differ in our deductions. The facts are these: 1st. The beautiful silver coins of the Sáh kings are all dated in the fourth century of some unknown era. 2nd. The silver coins of Kumára Gupta and of Skanda Gupta are evident and undoubted copies of those of the Sáh kings, and therefore these two princes must have reigned at a later date than the last of the Sáh kings. 7. In making his deductions from these facts, Mr. See Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. xii., "On the Dynasty of the Sah Kings of Suráshtra ;" by Edward Thomas, esq., Bengal Civil Service; a most valuable contribution to the ancient history of India. L Thomas has based all his calculations on M. Reinaud's translation of the passage in Abu Rihán, which gives the year 319 A.D., for the beginning of the Gupta era, and also for the final extinction of the Gupta dynasty. In adopting this version of Abu Rihán's statement, Mr. Thomas is obliged to search for some other epochs as the starting points from which to count the dates of the Surashtra and Gupta coins. The earlier era which he uses for this purpose is that of Sri Harsha,* which was entirely unknown until the publication of M. Reinaud's extracts from Abu Rihán. This era dates from B. C. 457, and the epoch of the Sáh kings of Surashtra is thus fixed between 157 and 57 B. c.† 8. Between the Sáh kings and the Guptas, Mr. Thomas interposes the Indo-Scythians, whose conquest he places in 26 B. C., and he proposes to count the date of Chandra Gupta's inscription at Sánchit from 78 A. D., which is the well-known commencement of the Sáka era. This will place the reign of Chandra Gupta in 78+ 93 171 A. D., and the reign = of Buddha Gupta in 78 + 165 = 243 A. D., after whom there is time for the reigns of a few more princes before the asserted extinction of the family in 319 A. D. 9. My reasons for assigning the Guptas to a later period have been given already; and I will * See Mr. Thomas's Essay, p. 43. now state as briefly as possible all my objections to Mr. Thomas's chronology. 1st. According to the Chinese historians, the power of the Indo-Scythians remained in full force until 222 A. D.; after which it began to decline. This statement is supported by Ptolemy the geographer, who between A. D. 140-160, assigns the whole valley of the Indus, including Sirastrene, or Surashtra, to the Indo-Scythians. 2nd. Samudra Gupta, according to the Allahabad and Bhitari inscriptions, was the fourth prince of the Gupta dynasty, and if we allow twenty years to each reign, Samudra will date from 60 to 80 of the Gupta era, or from 138 to 158 A. D. But in the Allahabad pillar inscription, Samudra mentions the Sháhán-sháh (that is, one of the Sassanian kings of Persia) as his contemporary, whose dynasty did not attain the throne until A. D. 223; and as in his account of the tributary and conquered provinces he omits Magadha, Suráshtra, and Ujjayani, it has been inferred by James Prinsep, * and is admitted by Mr. Thomas himself, that these provinces must have formed his own proper dominion. But as Sirastrene belonged to the Indo-Scythians at the very date that must be assigned to Samudra by Mr. Thomas's chronology, we must either reject his scheme altogether, or conclude, that both the Chinese historian and the Alexandrian geographer were in error. Journal vi. 975. 3rd. The independence of the native princes of Gujrat between 157 and 57 B. C. is completely at variance with the Greek accounts of Menander's conquest of Sarioustos or Surashtra, between 160 and 130 B. C., which is further authenticated by the longprotracted currency of his coins at Barygáza or Baroch. 4th. The alphabetical characters of the Surashtran coins * are so widely different from those of the Pillar and Rock inscriptions, and at the same time are so much similar to those of the Guptas, that it is impossible not to conclude that there must have been a long interval between Asoka and the independent Sáh kings, and an almost immediate succession of the Sáh kings by the Guptas. But Mr. Thomas's proposed chronology exactly reverses this conclusion, by making the interval between Asoka's death and the earliest date of the Surashtra coins not more than sixty-five years, while the interval between the last of the Sáh kings and the rise of the Guptas is one hundred and thirty-five years, or more than double the other. Another evidence in favour of the later date of the Sah kings of Gujrat is furnished by the gateway inscriptions at Sánchi. These date in the early part of the first century of our era (see No. 190); and though they show the nearest approach to the forms of the Sah alphabet, yet the latter is certainly posterior to the Sánchi inscriptions. This result agrees with the period which I have assigned to them, from A.D. 222 (the beginning of the Indo-Scythian decline) to A.D. 380, the accession of Samudra Gupta. 5th. The author of the Periplus of the Erythræan sea, who lived between 117 and 180 A. D., states that ancient drachmas of Apollodotus and of Menander were then current at Barygáza.* This prolonged currency of the Greek drachmas points directly to the period of the Indo-Scythian rule; for though we have some hundreds of their gold coins, and many thousands of their copper coins, yet only one solitary specimen of their silver coinage has yet been discovered. The Indo-Grecian silver probably continued current until after 222 A. D., when the IndoScythian power began to decline. From this period, about 250 A. D., I would date the independence of the Sáh kings, and the issue of their silver coinage, which was a direct copy in weight, and partly in type, from the Philopater drachmas of Apollodotus. 9. We have thus a continued series of silver currency in Gujrat for upwards of six hundred years, from Menander's conquest, in B. c. 150-140, to Budha Gupta's death, in about 510 A. d. From this period thick silver pieces of the same type and of the same value, but one half more in weight, were issued by the Balabhi kings down to the Mahomedan conquest. In the more precious metal the coinage of the Indo Scythians was immediately succeeded by the golden dinars of the Guptas, whose earliest pieces are almost Hudson, Geogr. Min., i. 87-"Vixit, teste Suida, Hadriani, Marci et Antonini temporibus;" that is, between 117 and 180 A.D., or about 160 A.D. |