A report on Rukhuna reliquary, Yavana era and Vijayamitra

The Rukhuna reliquary, also sometimes Rukhana reliquary, also described as the Bajaur reliquary inscription, is a Scythian reliquary which was dedicated and inscribed in 16 CE by Rukhuna, Queen of Indo-Scythian king Vijayamitra (ruled 12 BCE - 20 CE).

The inscription on the reliquary, also called the Bajaur reliquary inscription, was published by Richard Salomon with a photograph in 2005, and gives a relationship between several eras of the period, and especially a confirmation of a Yavana era (Yoṇaṇa vaṣaye) in relation to the Azes era, that is "Azes era= Yavana era - 128 years".

Vijayamitra is mentioned in a recently discovered inscription in Kharoshthi on a Buddhist reliquary (the "Rukhana reliquary", published by Salomon in 2005), which gives a relationship between several eras of the period, and especially gives confirmation of a Yavana era in relation to the Azes era:

A recently discovered reliquary (published by Salomon in 2005) from Bajaur gives a triple dating which allows to clarify the relationship between several eras: it is dated to the 27th regnal year of Vijayamitra, a king of the Indo-Scythian Apraca, the 73rd years of the Azes era, and the 201st year of the Greeks (Yonanas or Ionians).

The era in question is not specified, but it is now thought, following the discovery of the Bajaur reliquary inscription, that it is about the Yavana era beginning in 174 BCE, and gives a date for the Buddha statue of about 143 CE.