Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 1.djvu/59

 INTRODUCTION. 29 the Assyrians seem to have occupied the country eastward of the Caspian in sufficient force to prevent any further migration. At least, after say B.C. 1000 we have no further trace of any Aryan tribe crossing the Indus going eastward, and it seems mainly to have been a consequence of this cutting off of the supply of fresh blood that the purity of their race in India was so far weakened as to admit of the Buddhist reform taking root, and being adopted to the extent it afterwards attained. During the period of the Akhaemenian sway (B.C. 558-334) the Persians certainly occupied the countries about the Oxus in sufficient strength to prevent any movement of the peoples. So essentially indeed had Baktria and Sogdiana become parts of the Persian empire, that Alexander was obliged to turn aside from his direct route to conquer them, as well as the rest of the kingdom of Darius, before advancing on India. Whether it were founded for that purpose or not, the little Greek kingdom of Baktria was sufficiently powerful, while it lasted, to keep the barbarians in check ; but when, about or after B.C. 160, the Yue-chi and other cognate tribes invaded Sogdiana driving out the Sakas, who next invaded Baktria, and finally, about half a century later, the Yue-chi conquered the whole of Baktria, 1 they opened a new chapter in the history of India, the effects of which are felt to the present day. It is not yet quite clear how soon after the destruction of the Baktrian kingdom these Turanian tribes conquered Kabul, and occupied the country between that city and the Indus. Certain it is, however, that they were firmly seated on the banks of that river before the Christian Era, and under the great king Kanishka of the Kushana tribe had become an Indian power of very considerable importance. The date of this king is, unfortunately, one of those puzzles that still remain to be finally solved. It has been held that he was the founder of the Saka. Era, A.D. 78, and that his reign must be placed in the last quarter of the 1st century of our era. 2 But this era is only employed generally in the south and east ; and it now seems almost certain that Kanishka's reign began in B.C. 58 the epoch of what was once known as the ' Malava era,' and later as the 'Vikrama Samvat,' the reckoning in common use in northern India. 3 1 See Vivien de St Martin's ' Les Huns i Royal Asiatic Society,' 1907, p. 676. blancs,' Paris, 1849; Franke, ' Beitrage I 2 Fergusson, in 'Journal of the Royal aus chinesischen Quellen zur Kenntniss i Asiatic Society,' N.S. xii. pp. 259-285 ; der Turkvolker und sky then Centralasien' Oldenberg in 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. x. in'Abhandlungender konig. preussischen pp. 213-227. Academic der Wissenschaften,' 1904 3 Fleet in ' Journal of the Royal Asiatic summarised in 'Indian Antiquary,' vol. Society,' 1906, pp. 979-992. xxxv. (1906), pp. 33-47 ; 'Journal of the