1 THE SCYTHIAN SUPREMACY. 73
2 successors, Menander and Appollodotus, ruled the Panjab from the year
3 126 B. C.to the year 110, B. c., coins of the former being found from Kabul to
4 Mathura, on the Jamna. The Greco-Bactrian kingdom was subverted in the
5 year 127 B.c., but its offshoots continued to reign over the Panjab, the
6 valley of the Indus and Kabul, to the commencement of the first century
7 B.C, as is proved by the discovery of coins of Greek mintage with Aryan
8 inscriptions on the reverse.
9 The deductions drawn by Professors Lassen and Wilson from the inscrip-
10 tions on the coins of Parthian princes found in the Panjab, show clearly, I
11 think, that the Panjab was in the possession of those princes from 90 to 60
12 B.C. This is further evidenced by the fact recorded in history that, on the
13 dismemberment of the vast empire of Eneradites the Great, which followed
14 immediately on his death, India was invaded by Mithridates, a Parthian
15 monarch, about 140 B. c.
16 About the year 110 B. c. the Scythic element was predominant in the
17 Panjab. According to Chinese historians, the You-ti (Getes or Jits), who
18 occupied a vast tract of land between China and the Teen-shan, or the
19 Celestial Mountains, having been driven out of that country after many
20 bloody campaigns with the Huns, emigrated in great hordes to Afghanistan
21 and to the borders of the Panjab, and firmly established themselves in that
22 part of the country. They wrested the kingdom of Taxila from the Manas
23 in the year 105 B.C. und their kings, Ayes and Azilises, were in possession
24 of the whole country of the five rivers, as has been proved by coins recently
25 discovered.
26 The Scythian kings were expelled from the Panjab by the great Indian
27 sovereign, Vikramaditya, in the year 56 B. c., but on his death the country
28 was overrun by fresh hordes of Scythians, who established in it a dynasty of
29 kings bearing the name of Kadphises. These were, in their turn, subverted
30 by a fresh swarm of Scythian invaders, to whom belonged the dynasty of the
31 Kaneski kings. That these dynasties continued to rule the Panjab up to
32 the fifth century of the Christian era, is proved by the discovery of Kad-
33 phisic and Kaneski coins in the Panjab, Bamian and Kabul; by the evi-
34 dence furnished by the Chinese traveller, F4-Hien, who crossed the five
35 rivers of the Panjab early in the fifth century ; by the inscriptions on a tem ple
36 near Kotah, in Rajputana, dated 409 a. D., bearing a memorial of a Jit
37 prince of Salptira, and by the evidence collected in the Annals of Raj-
38 putdnd. Colonel Tod, the author of these annals, observes with reference to
39 the Jit princes, that “these Jit princes, of Salpura, in the Panjab, were
40 the leaders of that very colony of the Yuti from the Jaxartes who, as record-
41 ed by DeGuignes, crossed the Indus in the fifth century and possessed
42 themselves of the Panjab.” Gold, silver and copper coins of Greeco-Scythian
43 type, all Kaneski and Kadphisic, mixed with coins of the Sassanian mo-
44 narchs of-the third and fourth centuries of the Christian era, were found in
45 the ruins of Manakyala,* half-way between Atak and Jhelum, in 1830, by
46 Generals Ventura and Court, then in the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
47 The northern part of Eusufzai was known to be very rich in ancient
48 remains, the principal groups of ruins being Shahbaz Garhi, Takhti Bai,
49 Shahri Bahlol, Jamal Garhi, Kharkai, Swaldher and Rénigat, east of Mardan.
50 In the beginning of the fifth century A. D., the dynasty of Kadphises
51 was subverted by the White Huns, or Ephthalites, who were subdued in
52 555 A. D. by the Turks.
53 * A large tope, eighty feet high and about 320 feet in circumference, supposed by some
54 to be the capital of the country of Taxiles. Fifteen smaller topes exist in the same locality,
55 Coins were found in all of these.
56 Invasion of Mithri-
57 dates, the Parthian
58 king, 140 B.c,
59 Scythic element pre-
60 dominant in
61 Panjab, 110 8.c.
62 Vikramaditya,
63 the
64 the
65 Indian sovereign, 56
66 B.C.
67 The Kadphisic and
68 Kaneski dynasties of
69 Scythian kings, 500
70 A.D.
71 The White Huns
72 subverted by
73 Turks, 555 4.D.
74 Sri Satguru J agjit Singh Ji eLibrary NamdhariElibrary@ gmail.com
75 the