Formerly there reigned in Gandhara (Kan-to) a worthy and shrewd king; his name was Kanishka. He led his armies against all nations; none resisted him. Once, during his campaign in India (T‘ien-chu) (literally five Indies), some one presented him two very fine fabrics. He kept one (for himself), and bestowed the other on his queen. The queen clothed herself (with it), and came forward before the king. Now on the fabric, just over the breast of the queen, appeared the imprint of a hand in saffron (colour). At the sight of this the king grew angry, and demanded of the queen ‘what does the robe, put on by you, signify, and what does the mark of a hand convey?’ The Queen said to him ‘this is the same cloth which the king has given me.’ Furious, the king demanded an explanation from his treasurer, who replied to him ‘a piece of this stuff always carries this mark. Your bondsman is not here for nothing.’ And the king ordered the merchant, (who) had sold (the cloth to the buyer who had presented it to the king), to appear (before him); the latter (i. e. the merchant) said, ‘in South India reigns king Satavahana (So-t’o-p‘o-hen); and here (is one) who can fulfil his vow, made previously; every year he accumulates, one upon the other, fine fabrics brought to him as taxes; he imprints his hands, wetted in saffron, on these stuffs, and this imprint penetrates through all the pieces heaped up in thousands and tens of thousands. In whatever way a man may put on one of these cloths, the mark of the hand will appear on his back; and (it appears) over the breast if it is (worn by) a female.’
The king ordered the personnel of his retinue to put on (the pieces) themselves, and it (was) as the merchant had said. Striklng on his sword, the king cried out, ‘I (won’t) sleep or (take) rest before I cut off the hands and feet of King Satavahana’. And he despatched a messenger to South India to demand the hands and feet of king (Satavahana).
On the arrival of the messenger, king Satavahana and his minister spoke to him falsely that ‘we have a good king who has the name Satavahana; but this is not an actual king; nevertheless, the power and the supreme authority are in the hands of us, the ministers.’
On (hearing) that, the king (i.e. kanishka) ordered his cavalry and elephants to go down to the South, against the kingdom of (king) Satavahana.
The inhabitants concealed king (Satavahana) in an underground cave; and then cast in gold (a statue of) a man which went (i.e. was taken) to meet the invader. But the king (i.e. Kanishka) recognised the forgery, and, relying on the strength of his previous merits, he cut off the arms and the legs of the man (i.e. the statue) of gold. At the same moment fell off the two arms and (the two) legs of king Satavahana, hidden in the cave.
YU YANG TSA TSU, 11
kathA 