Vol. VI, No. 9.] Maharaja- Kanika-lekha. 479 



[N.S.] 



" O Deva (king)^ having acquired talents use them really 

 like Deva (a god or Arya Deva); Deva (king), having known 

 all faults be really faultless like Deva (a god or Arya Deva)." 



From the above it is evident that Maticitra alias ASvar 

 uhosa was a contemporary of Arya Deva and Candra Gupta. 

 If we suppose Candra Gupta to be the king of that name who 

 founded the Gupta era in 319 A.D., we cannot resist the con- 

 clusion that Maticitra and his patron Kanika lived at the end 

 of the third and beginning of the fourth century A.D. 



Kanika — Is stated in the letter to have belonged to the 



KuSana family, which though foreign was 

 at the time of the composition of the letter 

 so far Hinduised that it was described as a 

 section of the solar race. So we read : 



^q-^^I^SfSTpi^eTpi-^'SI'W f 





(Maharaja- Kanika-lekha, verse 49) 



''Trained by Pravrajita (monks) and born in the race 

 of KuSana thou shouldst not defile the creed of the family 

 whose ancestors descended from the noble line of the sun." 



Kanika was not the founder of the Kuiana dynasty. 

 That his ancestors reigned in India and professed Buddhism is 

 evident from the following verse of the letter : 



^q^^q^-.y^o|-^^^ | 



<^-g^^p q$p*r«p | 



1 Mr. Thomas reads: ^Z*3C" ] 



3 



HTT<£\£j is evidently the same as ^VT^ f "r. Thomas read 

 ^'rfl but agrees in interpreting it M H1\£T<5 ! 



S9 \A 



