174 KUSHAN KINGS

legends are plainly legible in both languages. On the copper coinage
the king is given the full suzerain titles of BACIA6YC BACIA€d)N
CO)THP MCTAC, while in the Kharosthi inscription he is called 'The
great king, king of kings, lord of the world, the Mahi&vara, the defender'.
Mahisvara is a name of 6iva, so perhaps Vima Kadphises claimed to be
an incarnation of the Indian destroying deity. Only one single piece
is known in silver of the Kadphises dynasty, and that is a coin almost
exactly resembling the ordinary small copper type of Vima Kadphises,
but struck in silver—& M. Cat., PL XXV. 11. Cunningham sug-
gested that this piece was intended for the equivalent of the Roman
silver denarius—Num. Chron., 1892, p. 70. But if the coin were
struck for ordinary circulation, it is very improbable that it would
have remained unique for more than seventy years—the coin is
figured in Ariana Awtiqua, published in 1841, I should be inclined
to regard it in the nature of a proof-piece.

In the chronological order generally accepted by numismatists up
to the present, the Kadphises group was succeeded by the following
Kushan princes in the order named:

Kanishka.
Huvishka.
Vasu Deva.

Between Kanishka and Huvishka came a ruler named Vasishka,
but his coins, if he issued any, have not yet been identified. It was
in the times of Kanishka and Huvishka that the power of the
Kushan Empire reached its zenith. According to the Rajatarangim
both rulers were Turushkas, that is to say, of Turkish stock. So
probably was Vasu Deva, but he assumed an Indian name. These
questions were discussed by Prof. Sten Konow of Christiania in a paper
on the nationality of the Kushanas, read before the International
Congress of Historical Studies, London, 1913. Their barbarian origin
notwithstanding, these rulers testified to their religious leanings by
the founding of numerous monasteries and shrines. The name of
Kanishka is prominent in the history of Buddhism in North-West
India.

Kanishka, Huvishka, and Vasu Deva coined extensively in gold
and copper, and these coins exhibit legends in the Greek script alone.
The only possible exception to this statement is the unique bilingual
copper piece which may have contained the name of Huvishka—
Cunningham, Num. Chron.9 1892, p, 82. In addition to this fact,
the coins are differentiated from the issues of the Kadphises group by
their general design and style. The issues of the Kanishka group
are found in such profusion throughout North-West India that this