Kharahostes

Coin of Kharahostes (c. 10 BCE?).
Obverse: King on horseback, with levelled spear. Greek legend XAPAHWCTEI CATPAΠEI ARTAYOY ("Satrap Kharahostes, son of Arta"). Kharoahthi mint mark sam
Reverse: Lion. Kharoshthi legend Chatrapasa pra Kharaustasa Artasa putrasa ("Satrap Kharahostes, son of Arta").

Kharahostes or Kharaostasa was an Indo-Scythian ruler (probably a satrap) in the northern Indian subcontinent around 10 BCE – 10 CE. He is known from his coins, often in the name of Azes II, and from an inscription on the Mathura lion capital.

Kharahostes's own coins attest that he was the son of Arta.[1] According to F. W. Thomas and Hendrik Willem Obbink, his mother was Nada Diaka, who was the daughter of Ayasia Kamuia.[2][3] However, according to Sten Konow, Ayasia Kamuia, the chief queen of Rajuvula, was the daughter of Kharahostes.[4]

Kharohostes' coinage bear a dynastic mark (a circle within three pellets), which is rather similar, although not identical, with the dynastic mark of the Kushan ruler Kujula Kadphises (three pellets joined together), which has led to suggestions that they may have been contemporary rulers.

Kharaosta of the Mathura lion capital inscriptions is usually identified with the Satrap Kharaostas or Kharahostes.[5] Kharaosta’s known coins are of two types, presenting legends in Greek characters on the obverse and in Kharoshthi in the reverse.

The Greek and Kharoshthi legend in the coins runs thus:

Kharahostei satrapei Artauou' : 'Kṣatrapasa Pra Kharaoṣtasa Artasa Putrasa (Of Satrap Kharaosta, son of Arta)[6] Some of his coins write "Ortas" in place of "Artas".

A recently discovered inscribed silver Buddhist reliquary, found in Shinkot in Bajaur (Pakistan) refers to a king "Kharayosta", believed to belong to the final quarter of the 1st century BCE. This king Kharayosta has been identified with the "Yuvaraja Kharosta" in the lion capital inscriptions and the Kharaostasa or Kharahostes of the coins.[7]

References and notes

  1. ↑ Ahmad Hasan Dani (1999). History of Civilizations of Central Asia: The development of sedentary and nomadic civilizations, 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 201. ISBN 978-81-208-1408-0. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  2. ↑ Hendrik Willem Obbink. Orientalia Rheno-traiectina. Brill Archive. p. 333. GGKEY:S6C77GP5KP7. Retrieved 8 March 2012.
  3. ↑ F. W. Thomas, Epigraphia Indica, Vol IX, p 135, F. W. Thomas.
  4. ↑ Sten Konow, Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol II, Part I, p 36 & xxxvi
  5. ↑ Ahmad Hasan Dani et al., History of Civilizations of Central Asia, 1999, p 201, Unesco
  6. ↑ Philologica indica , 1940, p 252, Dr Heinrich Lüders
  7. ↑ Richard Salomon, "An Inscribed Silver Buddhist Reliquary of the Time of King Kharaosta and Prince Indravarman", Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 116, No. 3 (July - September 1996), pp. 418-452

External links

See also

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