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of language, the state of religion and the contact with foreigners—these are prominently reflected in the records of .Asoka.
For a few centuries after Asoka, coins and inscriptions -are the only source of information. The Kushana branch -of the Graeco-Bactrian race established a powerful dominion under Kazulo Kadphises. His immediate successor Kanishka forms a noteworthy personage in Indian History and his date 78 A. D. marks the beginning of an era, concurrent with the Salivahanasaka of Southern India. "This limit is otherwise remarkable, as we shall see later on, ;as the starting point of all oriental research in Indian -chronology and to it has been accorded an infalliable authority ; so much so the system has obtained a prescriptive claim, too petrified to allow of any questioning demonstration. From the fourth century A. D. the copperplate records become more numerous. Epigraphical and •• numismatic discoveries have likewise facilitated research. But still these have not given us any continuous history. Numerous blanks are yet to be patched up, which can only be done by means of reason or conjecture. Besides the notices of foreign writers are remarkabk as furnishing authentic information regarding contemporary India, "The travels of Fa-Hian and Hiouen Thsang have supplied many important data for the periods to which they belong, while the minute and careful state records of the Chinese have only given us valuable details as to the history of
barbarous Scythian tribes, whose movements oq the ^northern frontier of India in the first century of tfee