THE SENAS, GUPTAS, AND VALABH 1 S. 229

Salivahana. 1 During the seven centuries which followed, threepowerful monarchies, the Senas, Guptas, and Valabhfs, esta-blished themselves in Western and Northern India. On the Sena (Sah)western coast the Senas and Singhas, the Satraps of Surashtra ^Tc^toor Gujarat , are traced by coins and inscriptions from 60 or 235 a.d.70 b.c. to after 235 a.d . 2

After the Senas come the Guptas of Kanauj , 3 in theNorth-Western Provinces, the ancient Middle Land. The GuptaGuptas introduced an era of their own, commencing in 319^^^a.d. ; and ruled in person or by viceroys over Northern India a.d.during 150 years, as far to the south-west as Kathiawar. TheGupta dynasty was overthrown by foreign invaders, apparently anew influxof Huns orTartars from the north-west (450-470 a.d.).

The Valabhis succeeded the Guptas, and ruled over Cutch, ValabhiNorth-Western Bombay, 4 and Malwa, from 480 to after 722 a.d . 5The Chinese Pilgrim, Hiuen Tsiang, gives a full account of a.d.the court and people of Valabhi (630-640 a.d.). Buddhism wasthe State religion , but heretics, i.e. Brahmans, abounded; andthe Buddhists themselves were divided between the Northernschool of the Scythian dynasties, and the Southern or Indian school of Asoka. The Valabhis seem to have been overthrownby the early Arab invaders of Sind in the 8th century.

The relations of these three Indian dynasties, the Senas, LongGuptas, and Valabhis, to the successive hordes of Scythians ,who poured down on Northern India, are obscure. There Scythicis abundant evidence of a long-continued struggle, but the inV g d “ s t ’ 0efforts to affix dates to its chief episodes have not yet pro- j 44 ^_' D .duced results which can be accepted as final. Two Vikram-aditya Sakaris, or Vanquishers of the Scythians , are requiredfor the purposes of chronology ; and the great battle of Korurnear Multan, in which the Scythian hosts perished, has beenshifted backwards and forwards from 78 to 544 a.d . 6

1 General Cunningham ; see also Mr. Edw. Thomas’ letter, dated 16thSeptember 1874, to The Academy, which brings this date within the periodof the Kanishka family (2 n.c. to 87 A.D.).

2 By Mr. Newton. See Mr. E. Thomas on the Coins of the Sah Kings,

Arc lire ol. Rep. Western India, p. 44 (1876); and Dr. J. Fergusson, JournalRoy. As. Soc., 1880.

3 Now a town of only 16,646 inhabitants in Farukhabad District, butwith ruins extending over a semicircle of 4 miles in diameter.

4 Lat-desha, including the collectorates of Surat , Broach, Kaira,and parts of Baroda territory.

5 The genealogy is worked out in detail by Mr. E. Thomas, tit sup. pp. 80-82.

6 78 A.D. was the popularly received date, commemorated by the Sdka■era; ‘between 524 and 544 a.d. ’is suggested by Dr. Fergusson (p. 284of Journal Roy. As. So:, vol. xii.) in 1880.