Vol. VI, No. 9.] Maharaja- Kanika-lekha. 181 



[N.S.] 



Kusana is expressly designated in the Raja- 

 taranginI as descended from the Turuska 

 race. 1 The KuSanas rose in power on the 

 Oxus about 126 B.C., when Tahia was con- 

 quered. After subcluing the Se or Sakas; the 

 Ku&anas entered India about the middle of 

 the 1st century B.C. Leaving a normal 

 space for the reigns of Kadphises I and II, 

 we may assign their successor Kaniska to 

 the 1st century A.D. The later KuSanas 

 are said to have reigned up to the ith cen- 

 tury A.D. Kanika was very probably a king 

 of the later Ku&anas, and if we suppose him 

 to be a contemporary of A&vaghosa and 

 Candra Gupta I, he lived about 319 A.D. 

 This leads us to conclude that the Kusanas 

 reigned in various parts of Northern India 

 during the first four centuries of Christ,, 

 even in some instances contemporaneous^ 

 with the Guptas. Even supposing that 

 Kanika and Kaniska were the variant forms 

 of the same name, we cannot but admit that 

 there was a king named Kaniska at the end 

 of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th centurv 

 A.D. This view tallies well with the state- 

 ment in the RajataranginI that 12 reigns 

 intervened between Kaniska (or Kanika) and 

 Mihirakula (515 A.D.). 2 



and Notes on the In do-Scythians by Sylvain Levi in Ind. Antiq. .r 

 November 1903. 



1 RajataranginI, J, 170. 



* Watters' on Yuan Chwang, Vol. r, p. 290. 



The date of Kaniska I, if we suppose him to be different from 

 Kanika, has not been definitely fixed. The Saka era (78 A.D). which 

 is generally ascribed to him, was perhaps a mere device for | bctical 

 reckoning received from the Greeks. Vide Dr. F. J. Fleet's common 

 tion on " the Saka Era/' J.R.A.S. for July 1910. 



