1848.] Essay on the Avian Order of Architecture. 261 



The same authority also says that he reigned for 300 years ; and M. 

 Troyer, the learned translator of the Raja Tarangini, has attempted to 

 unravel this knotty point of Kashmirian chronology, but in my opinion 

 without the least success. I believe that the native author must have 

 mistaken the Vikramaditya of Ujain, who placed Matrigupta upon the 

 throne of Kashmir for the celebrated Vikramaditya Sakari of Ujain. 

 Now the mention of Dinars in the reign immediately preceding, proves 

 that the author's Vikramaditya could not have lived until after the 

 period of Roman ascendancy in the east, when the Indian trade was 

 followed by Roman sailors, and when, as we learn from the Periplus, 

 the Roman denarii were exchanged with advantage against the gold 

 coin of the country. Now Dinars are also mentioned in the Sdchi tope 

 inscription of Chandragupta of Magadha, who flourished during the end 

 of the 4th and the beginning of the 5th centuries, who was also Lord of 

 Ujain, and who on his coins takes the title of Vikramaditya. These 

 facts no doubt must have misled the Kashmirian author, who, to fill up 

 the gap that thus resulted, could fortunately invent no better plan than 

 the miraculous lengthening of one Prince's reign to 300 years. 



7. — I published this identification of the Vikramaditya of Kashmiri- 

 an history with Chandragupta Vikramaditya no less than six years ago, 

 in the Numismatic Chronicle of London ; and I still adhere to the gene- 

 ral correctness of my Kashmirian chronology published at the same 

 time, which places the reign of Ranaditya between the years 480 — 555, 

 A. D. In a disputed point of chronology however which involves the true 

 date of the erection of a temple, the wonder of Kashmir, it may be as 

 well to quote the dates given by other authorities. According to the 

 Raja Tarangini, which is followed by Troyer, Ranaditya flourished be- 

 tween the years A. D. 217 — 517. According to Wilson's corrected 

 chronology, he reigned from A. D. 545 to 568 ; but this date must be 

 curtailed by 21 years, the amount of Wilson's own error, which will 

 place Ranaditya' s reign between the years 524 — 547, A. D. Now as the 

 different dates of Ranaditya' s death correspond within a few years, or 

 between 517 — 555, A. D. it seems quite certain that this Prince must 

 have flourished in the earlier part of the first half of the 5th century. 

 We may therefore safely assume A. D. 500, as being within a few 

 years of the true date of the erection of the two subordinate temples of 

 Ranesa and Amriteswara. 



