228 SCYTHIC INROADS AND NAG A RACES.

Central Asian hordes also supplied certain of the Naga, orso-called aboriginal, races of India .

Indian The Scythic settlements were not effected without a struggle,againfuhe Chandra Gupta had advanced from the Gangetic valley, andScythians , rolled back the tide of Grseco-Bactrian conquest, 312-306 b.c.,,so the native princes who stemmed the torrent of Scythian invasion are the Indian heroes of the first century before audafter Christ. Vikramaditya, King of Ujjain , appears to havewon his paramount place in Indian story by driving out theSamvat invaders. An era, the Samvaf, beginning in 57 b.c., was

era > 57 founded in honour of his achievements. Its date 1 seems

B.C.

at variance with his legendary victories over the ScythianKanishka in the first century after Christ. 2 But the very titleof its founder suffices to commemorate his struggle againstthe northern hordes, as Vikramdditya Sakari, or Vikramaditya,the Enemy of the Scythians .

The name of Vikramaditya, 1 A very Sun in Prowess,’ wasborne, as we have seen, by several Indian monarchs. Inlater ages, their separate identity was merged in the ancientrenown of the Slayer of the Scythians , who thus combined thefame of many Vikramadityas. There was a tendency toassign to his period the most eminent Indian works in scienceand poetry,—works which we know must belong to a date longafter the first century of our era. His reign forms the Augustanera of Sanskrit literature; and tradition fondly ascribes thehighest products of the Indian intellect during many later cen-turies to the poets and philosophers, or Nine Gems, of thisVikramaditya’s court. As Chandra Gupta, who freed India from the Greeks, is celebrated in the drama Mudra-rakshasa 7so Vikramaditya, the Vanquisher of the Scythians , forms thecentral royal personage of the Hindu stage.

Sdka or Vikramaditya’s achievements, however, furnished no finalScythian deliverance, but merely form an episode in the long strugglebetween the Indian dynasties and new races from the north.Another popular era, the Sdka , literally the Scythian , takes itscommencement in 78 a.d ., 3 and is supposed to commemoratethe defeat of the Scythians by a king of Southern India ,

1 Samvatsara, the ‘Year.’ The uncertainty which surrounds even thislong-accepted finger-post in Indian chronology may be seen from Dr. J.Fergusson’s paper ‘ On the Saka and Samvat and Gupta eras ’ (_ JournalRoy. As. Sac., New Series, vol. xii.), especially p. 172.

3 The Hushka, Jushka, and Kanishka family of the Raja Taraiigini,or Chronicles of Kashmir, are proved by inscriptions to belong to the 4thcentury of the Seleucidan era, or the 1st century a.d.

3 Monday, 14th March 78 A.D., Julian style.