Vol. VII, No. 11.] The Vikramaditya Samvatsara. 749 
[NV.S.] 
everywhere received as saviours, and Guthlaf and his two able 
successors were able to found the powerful Empire of the Kushans, 
known to history as the Indo-Skythic Empire, with the ap- 
proval of the subject races. In memory of the annexation 
of the Panjab, rulers and people established B.C. 57 the Vikrama- 
ditya Era, which in grateful remembrance of their delivery 
from Parthian oppression still survives amongst the people of 
the Panjab. 
64. Buddhism, which the example of King Agoka had 
endeared to the people of Northern India, was the prevalent 
religion of the land, and Guthlaf and his two immediate successors 
frankly accepted the fact, and became munificent supporters 
of the Order, which throughout their dominions they richly 
endowed. The Buddhism of Kadphises (Guthlaf) was, however, 
history of the age. Though Gautama (Vakyamuni) was himself 
of northern type, his surroundings had been so distinctly Indian 
greatest of evils. The highest aim of humanity was actual and 
absolute extinction, and towards this end must r 
even in this life, the sense of separate existence, the delusion of 
self, and the lust of life. 
65. At the very antipodes of this nihilistic creed was the 
new doctrine preached by the apostles of the Mahayana, Nagar- 
juna, Aryadeva, and, last but not least, Acvaghosha ; and there 
is no reason to doubt that at the bottom of the change was the 
intellectual movement brought about by the presence of the 
northern invaders. Gautama, himself descended from Getic 
h 
brought down on him the reproaches of his former fellow 
disciples. His future life was a distinct compromise ; theoreti- 
cally a nihilist, his whole existence was a glorification of the 
principle of action. ma, 
philosophy, influenced scarcely at all his religious practice, 
which was that of a strenuous activity; wherein the nature 
of the individual, and not the acquired merit of countless 
previous existences, as taught in his philosophy, was all through 
the prevailing motive. 
66. It is quite in the nature of things that Gautama himself 
never perceived the contradiction, but by degrees the fact forced 
itself on the notice of the disciples. Even with the Buddhism 
of Acoka, the rebellion against the soul-deadening doctrine of 
Karma, and the necessity for each individual who desires the 
rest of Nirvana to work out his own salvation, is apparent ; under 
