Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/280

 242 THE KUSHAN OR INDO - SCYTHIAN DYNASTY The reign of Huvishka was undoubtedly prolonged, but all memory of its political events has perished. His abundant and varied coinage is little inferior in inter- est or artistic merit to that of Kanishka, with which it is constantly associated, and, like the contemporary sculp- ture, testifies to the continuance of Hellenistic influence. A few specimens of the gold coinage present well exe- cuted and characteristic portraits of the king, who was a determined-looking man, with strongly marked fea- tures, large, deep-set eyes, and an aquiline nose. So far as appears, the Kushan power suffered no diminution during his reign. Huvishka was succeeded by Vasudeva, whose thor- oughly Indian name is a proof of the rapidity with which the foreign invaders had succumbed to the influ- ence of their environment. Testimony to the same fact is borne by his coins, almost all of which exhibit on the reverse the figure of the Indian god Siva, attended by his bull Nandi, and accompanied by the noose, tri- dent, and other insignia of Hindu iconography. The inscriptions of Vasudeva, found chiefly at Mathura, cer- tainly range in date from the year 74 to the year 98 of the era used in the Kushan age, and indicate a reign of not less than twenty-five years. If the Sanchi in- scription bears the date 68, the reign would have lasted about thirty-five years. It is evident that the Kushan power must have been decadent during the latter part of the long reign of Vasudeva, and apparently before its close, or immedi- ately* after that event, the vast empire of Kanishka