INTRODUCTION. 21 elements. The dates of the kings of this dynasty are also approximately known, and the whole framework of their history depends so completely on contemporary native monuments, that there need be no real uncertainty regarding any of the outlines of the picture when once the subject is fairly grasped and thoroughly handled. It is the firmest standpoint we have from which to judge of Indian civilisation and history, whether looking to the past or to the future, and it is one that gives a very high idea of the position at which the Hindus had arrived before they came practically into contact with the civilisation of the West. SUNGA DYNASTY, B.C. 180 TO 70. KANWAYANA DYNASTY, B.C. 70 TO 36. History affords us little beyond the lengths of the kings' reigns for the next two dynasties, and we are obliged to trust to the general correctness with which these are recorded in the Puranas, and by degrees we are collecting inscriptions, and we know of caves that belong to their time, so that we may hope to breathe life into what has hitherto appeared only a dry list of names. Possibly the Kanwas had usurped the power of the Sungas, so that the two families may have been nominally con- temporary during the period assigned to the latter, and that both came to an end about 40 B.C. Anyhow we know that the Andhras had risen to power on the decline of the Mauryas. These dynasties were not, however, apparently known to the Greeks, and possibly, being Buddhist, are passed over in com- parative silence in the Puranas. It is thus only from their monuments that we can hope to recover their history. Up to the present time, the most important inscription discovered is that of a prince Dhanabhuti who " in the time of the Sungas " erected a gateway at the Bharaut stupa. ANDHRA DYNASTY, ABOUT B.C. 170 TO A.D. 220. The dynasty that ruled the Dekhan at least, contemporary with these Rois faineants is after the Mauryas the most important of all those about this period of Indian history. To the classical authors they are known as the Andrae, in the Puranas as Andhrabhrityas, and in the inscriptions as .Satakarnis or .Satavahanas ; but under whatever name, notwithstanding occasional periods of depression, they played a most important part in the history of India, during more than four centuries. They were a South-Indian dynasty, first mentioned in a
