Political History Of Ancient India

SR No.: 032292
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hemchandra Raychaudhari
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1950
Total Pages: 714
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 17 MB

Page 462

SAKAS IN THE INDIAN BORDERLAND 433
seems to suggest that the capital of the Sai-wang (Śaka-Muran la) was Lampāka or Laghman (Lampākāstu Murandāh syuh).1 Sten Konow says that according to the T's'ien Han-shu, or Annals of the First Han Dynasty, the Sai, i.e., the Sakas, passed the Hientu (the hanging passage), i.e., the gorge west of Skardu on their way to Kipin. Though the Sakas wrested parts of Kipin (Kāpisa-Gandhāra) from the hands of Greek meridarchs (governors ) they could not permanently subjugate Kābul, 3 where the Basileus (king) maintained a precarious existence. They were more successful in India. Inscriptions at Mathurā and Nāsik prove that the Sakas extended their sway as far as the Jumna in the east and the Godāvarì in the south, and destroyed the power of the 'Mitras' of Mathurā and the Sātavāhanas of Paithan. 4
No connected or detailed account of the Saka potentates of Kipin is possible. Sakas are mentioned along with the Yavanas in the Rāmāyana,5 the Mahabhārata, 6 the Manusamhitā" and the Mahābhāshya.8 The Harivañśa' informs us that they shaved one-half of their heads. The Jaina work Kālakūchārya-kathānaka states that their kings were called Sāhi. 10 Some of these Śāhis' are said to have been induced by a Jaina teacher
1 Lampāka (Laghman) is 100 miles to the east of Kapisene (AGI, 49).
2 Ep. Ind., XIV, 291. Corpus, II. 1. xxiii. For possible alternative routes of conquest, see JRAS., 1913, 929, 959, 1008, 1023.
3 Journal of the Department of Letters, Vol. I, p. 81.
4 Some of the Sakas seem to have penetrated to the far south of India. A Nāgārjunikonda Inscription refers to a Saka named Moda and his sister Budhi. Ep. Ind. xx. 37. .
5 1, 54. 22 ; IV. 43, 12. 6 II, 32. 17. 7 X. 44. 8 Ind. Ant., 1875, 244. 9 Chap. 14, 16. JRAS., 1906, 204. 10 ZDMG., 34, pp. 247 ff., 262; Ind. Ant., X. 222. 0. P. 90–55.