Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/234

196 THE SUNGA, KANVA, AND ANDHRA DYNASTIES an end about 236 A. D., are mere names; but the real existence of Vada Sri is attested by the discovery of a few leaden coins bearing his name. Research will prob- ably detect coins struck by both his next predecessor and immediate successor. The testimony of the Puranas that the dynasty endured for 456% years, or, in round numbers, four centuries and a half, appears to be accurate. The num- ber of the kings also appears to be correctly stated as having been either thirty or thirty-one. At present nothing is known concerning the causes which brought about the downfall of this dynasty, which had succeeded in retaining power for a period so unusually prolonged. The fall of the Andhras hap- pens to coincide very closely with the death of Vasu- deva, the last of the great Kushan kings of Northern India, as well as with the rise of the Sasanian dynasty of Persia (226 A. D.), and it is possible that the co- incidence may not be merely fortuitous. But the third century A. D. is one of the dark spaces in the spectrum of Indian history, and almost every event of that time is concealed from view by an impenetrable veil of oblivion. Vague speculation, unchecked by the salutary limitations of verified fact, is, at the best, unprofitable, and so we must be content to let the Andhras pass away in the darkness.