INTRODUCTION

THE first Section of this work has treated of the coins of the Greek
Invaders of North-West India. We now come to the next in chrono-
logical order of the foreign lines which are known to us chiefly
through their coins, the so-called Indo-Seythian and Indo-Parthian
dynasties. The Indo-Seythian, Kushan, and White Him invasions
mark the subjection of the extreme North-West of India to tribes
which came from regions of Central Asia. Apart from the coins and
the scanty inscriptions, the only information we can glean as to the
Indo-Scythians and their immediate successors, is to be found in
the Rajatarahgint,1 the Sanskrit metrical chronicle of Kashmir,
in the official annals of the Chinese dynasties, and in the records of
those Chinese pilgrims who visited the sacred Buddhist sites in
Northern India.

According to Chinese accounts, the Sakas—Se or Sok—a nomad
horde living to the west of the Chinese Empire, were driven out of
their lands by another nomad horde, the Yue-chi, and migrating into
Ki-pin (Kashmir) about the end of the second century B.C., spread
over a region which roughly corresponded with the present provinces
of Sistan, Sind, and the North-West Panjab. They overthrew the
Greek power in these parts, and established a new kingdom east and
west of the River Indus which is known as Indo-Scythia, The Greeks
of Kabul probably maintained their independence. According to
Cunningham, there were three distinct dynasties of Saka or Indo-
ScytMan rulers whose names have been preserved to us on their
coins: one proceeding from Vonones and his lieutenants Spalahores
and Spalagadames, holding to the west of the Indus; a second from
Maues or Moa, and Azes, in the Panjab; and a third in Sind and
Western Central India, to which the great satrap Nahapana belonged.
The coins of the three prominent kings Maues, Azes, and Azilises, are
found chiefly in the Panjab, and rarely in Afghanistan. These three
rulers certainly preceded the Kushan conqueror Kujula Kadphises,
with whom they seem to have had nothing in common, whereas

1 Translated by Sir Am*el Stein.