Read more : http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta2/tft/article.php?issue=20110715&page=16

Thnx for sharing this informative article. Could you plz tell me which "script" is carved on the coin which has Kanishka on it ? Is it Kahoroshti ? But it looks like Greek !

They are greek characters with an additional sign (for: "sh")

ϷΑΟΝΑΝΟϷΑΟ ΚΑΝΗϷΚΙ ΚΟϷΑΝΟ ("Shaonanoshao Kanishki Koshano"): "King of Kings, Kanishka the Kushan"

Nothing is more controversial than the date of Kanishka. Two London conferences, but we are where we were. I wish the writer of the article did not sound as definite as she does about the dating.

And it is of such crucial importance. Indian ancient history cannot claim the rank of a history if this is not resolved. But for this the ground has to be cleared of bilge which no one is prepared to do at present.

Take Matrcheta's 'Maharaja Kanika Lekha', for instance. If you do not read it in detail there is no problem. But is it addressed to Kanishka? The term 'moon' is the translated form of 'Chandra'. The problems start here. Which Chandra?

Harry Falk has almost claimed to have solved the problem of Kanishka's date but many others are skeptical. Falk has no idea of the intricacies of even Ashokan history about which he writes much. I personally agree with B. N. Mukherjee who proposes a return to the good old 78 AD.

The date of Kanishka has a bearing of Indian numismatics. A bewildering body of literature exits on Gondophernes and Hermaeus Soter. Gondophernes is usually dated to the 1st century AD but R. C. Senior has recently done a complete somersault and has placed him in the period 20-10 B.C. This goes against Falk's theory.

Kanishka is linked to Asvaghosha by almost all but there are problems. There were probably many Ashaghoshas. The learned Anesaki wrote about an Ashaghosha who lived during the reign of Bindusara and was connected to Kanika who surely cannot be Kanishka.

R. E. Emmerick writes in the Cambridge History of Iran; The traditions which associate Kanishka with the famous Buddhist authors, Asvaghosha, Matrceta and Vasubandhu, as well as the well known physician Caraka, are of little value. Even a Buddhist Council is attributed to Kanishka's auspices as a parallel to the alleged council of Pataliputra under Asoka. Ocar von Hinuber also dismisses Kanishka's council as unhistorical.

Thnx for the translation ! @Giorgio Di Francesco

And also that King Kanika of the Maharaja Kanika Lekha was Alexander the Great who was also known as Ale-Khan-dar.

I have written in my book that Calanus or Aspines who was the guru of Alexander the Great was an Asvaghosha. He may even have been the biographer of Gotama.

Arrian talks about his horse which explains his name.

A powerful heuristic often utilised in artificial intelligence research is ‘coalesce’, which consists in assigning the same value to two different variables. If you use this on Vasudeva of India and Artavasdes of Armenia, you land up with two Indias.

Arta is an honorific.

Some thing unconnected to the coins.If i am not mistaken he kushan empire was one of the three indian kingdoms that successfully ruled over afghanistan over the centuries of know history.All others had a disastrous defeat. Am i right?can the historians come in?

Kushans did control Afghanistan but in fact much more. In fact the name Afghanistan can be found only from about 1100 AD. Before that Afghanistan (and also Seistan) was known as Hind/Sind.

In the Christian records Gondophernes, king of Seistan (and Punjab) is always King of India.

Senior's dating of Gondophernes to 20-10 B.C. is a great leap forward but where does it take Amyntas and Hermaeus?

Fantastic! Reminding me of the end of the Devi Mahatmyam where the king is granted a future kingdom where he will "take his birth from the Light of Wisdom, and will become the Manifestation of Wisdom, He Who Belongs to All Colors, Tribes and Castes." in the translation by Swami Satyananda Saraswati, Chandi Path, She Who Tears Apart Thought

@Muthuswamy Jayaram The Empire of Dharmapala also included Afghanistan and probably what is now eastern Iran but was once 'India'.