Note 88 — Chapter V · THE KSHATRAPAS (b.c. 70–a.d. 398.)

A hoard of coins found in 1861 near Karád on the Kṛishṇa, thirty-one miles south of Sátára, suggests88 that the Kshatrapas retained the North Konkan and held a considerable share of the West Dakhan down to the time of Viśvasena (a.d. 300). The hoard includes coins of the six following rulers: Vijayasena (a.d. 238–249), his brother Dámájaḍaśrí III. (a.d. 251–255), Rudrasena II. (a.d. 256–272) son of Víradáman, Viśvasiṃha (a.d. 272–278) son of Rudrasena, Bharttṛidáman (a.d. 278–294) son of Rudrasena II., and Viśvasena (a.d. 296–300) son of Bharttṛidáman. It may be argued that this Karád hoard is of no historical value being the chance importation of some Gujarát pilgrim to the Kṛishṇa. The following considerations favour the Chapter V. Western Kshatrapas, a.d. 70–398. Kshatrapa XX. Viśvasena, a.d. 294–300. view that the contents of the hoard furnish evidence of the local rule of the kings whose coins have been found at Karád. The date (a.d. 238–249) of Vijayasena, the earliest king of the hoard, agrees well with the spread of Gujarát power in the Dakhan as it follows the overthrow both of the west (a.d. 180–200) and of the east (a.d. 220) Śátakarṇis, while it precedes the establishment of any later west Dakhan dynasty: (2) All the kings whose coins occur in the hoard were Mahákshatrapas and from the details in the Periplus (a.d. 247), the earliest, Vijayasena, must have been a ruler of special wealth and power: (3) That the coins cease with Viśvasena (a.d. 296–300) is in accord with the fact that Viśvasena was the last of the direct line of Chashṭana, and that with or before the close of Viśvasena’s reign the power of the Gujarát Kshatrapas declined. The presumption that Kshatrapa power was at its height during the reigns of the kings whose coins have been found at Karád is strengthened by the discovery at Amrávati in the Berárs of a hoard of coins of the Mahákshatrapa Rudrasena (II. ?) (a.d. 256–272) son of the Mahákshatrapa Dámájaḍaśrí.89