176 ART. IX.-FURTHER NOTES AND DRAWINGS OF BACTRIAN AND INDO-SCYTHIC COINS. [On reading over this article preparatory to republication, I have felt some difficulty as to the best method of adapting it to the advanced knowledge exhibited in Prinsep's more recent essays, and equally some reserve in disfiguring it with frequent emendations incident to the progress since achieved by others in this department of palæographic research. At the same time I have been anxious to delay entering on any general review of the subject, till I could concentrate such information as I have to impart under one heading, when following up the thread of my author's latest and most mature revision of the Bactrian alphabet under Art. XXI. I have therefore adopted the compromise of reproducing the paper in its original form, though in reduced type, uncommented upon and uncorrected in its text, except in so far as appeared absolutely necessary for the proper exhibition of the coin legends, which have been reprinted literatim, with the latest accepted readings appended in Roman type and enclosed within the brackets I have throughout employed to mark my own interpolations.' An inconvenience, inseparable from this course, however, may be felt from my having to remove the plate of Alphabets, together with the illustrative series of type characters, to their more suitable position in connection with the concluding summary towards the end of this volume. The publisher of this work-in accordance with my own first impressions on the subject-had designed to illustrate its pages with Bactrian type, corresponding with that originally employed by Prinsep. To this intent, a fount (supposed to be based upon Prinsep's models) was procured from Vienna, but, on examination, was at once seen to be faulty in the forms of its characters, and deficient in most of the requisite simple letters and combinations. To complete the alphabet, and to supply the manifest deficiencies, would have occupied much time, and have led to a greatly enhanced outlay. It became, therefore, a question as to how far any actual necessity existed for the use of these types, and I myself, on re-consideration and more practical and definite understanding of the value of these forms, and the object that existed for their insertion in the text, have come to the conclusion that it will be even better without them. It is true, that, for those who would spell over each medal's legend by its counterpart transcript in the body of the text, some gain might be anticipated from the employment of characters but little modified from the originals; but, on the other hand, it is to be remarked that the complete series of Bactrian coins presents us with many varieties and modifications of one and the same letter, and what might be valuable and an aid in one place, would be detrimental and obstructive in another. Add to this the very limited number of the entire range of titles, which recur in mere mechanical repetition, and the fact that each king's name will have to be considered in detail under its separate orthography, and hence, that both these enquiries might be more effectually and compactly disposed of in one comprehensive note, rather than be left to be developed in comparatively isolated positions, amid the detached comments on particular coins scattered at hazard under the various explanations of the plates in which they are severally figured. Prinsep's early papers, however meritorous in their first production, and however interesting as a record of his progress, were clearly superseded by his later and more mature investi gations; and, necessarily, even those very admirable researches have been improved upon by the writers of mark and extensive learning, who have reviewed his occasional notes during the nineteen years that have elapsed since the last of the suite was put to press. This is especially the case with the Bactrian section of Indian numismatics, which, as I have before remarked, possessed an interest for the classic scholars of the west, which our purely local coins obviously failed to secure. Hence it has been determined to limit the exhibition of Bactrian type in this paper to simple letters or such limited combinations as the due exemplification of orthography may from time to time demand.—E. T.] many : Various causes have prevented the continuance of my imperfect notes on the numerous and highly curious coins which have passed under my inspection, since I last ventured my observations on the Kanerkos and Kadphises group, as connected with the Manikyala tope. Want of leisure to attempt the engraving of so many plates, and the desire to profit by a farther collection, of which I had received notice from Shekh Karámat 'Alí, but which has not yet reached me, were among the principal causes of my dilatoriness. Some little deference, however, was also due to of my subscribers, who complained that I was deluging them with old coins. Having at length found time to engrave the first six plates of my proposed series, in elucidation of the principal new coins of Dr. Gerard's, Karámat 'Ali's, and Gen. Ventura's splendid discoveries, I cannot refrain from putting on record the little I have to say regarding them; the rather as we may soon expect to hear from Paris of the reception Gen. Ventura's collection has met from the savans of that city, many of them so eminent in this branch of inquiry and we are, on the other hand, expecting a fresh memoir from Mr. Masson, which might anticipate some of the discoveries I would fain claim for myself in this fair and highly interesting game of antiquarian research. Little indeed can I claim as my own, save the labour of classifying the coins, as they have come down at successive intervals-two or three hundred from Karámat 'Ali, forwarded through Capt. Wade; then as many more from the late Dr. Gerard, brought down by Mohan Lál, who assisted him in procuring them; and lastly, the rich spoils entrusted by Gen. Ventura to the Chev. Allard for conveyance to Paris. The careful examination of the whole has brought to light the names of several princes unknown to history, and some few not included in the very curious and novel list of Mr. Masson, published in vol. iii. of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal.' It has also enabled me to appropriate to their right owners many of the coins of Lieut. Burnes and other collectors, engraved in former plates: further, it has furnished me a clue to the Bactrian form (if we may so call it) of the Pehlvi character, which is found on the reverse of many of these coins; and lastly, it has laid open a perfect link of connection between what we have hitherto called the Indo-Scythic coins, with corrupted Greek inscriptions, and the Hindú coins attributed with reasonable certainty to the Kanauj dynasties immediately anterior to the Muhammadan irruptions of the eleventh century. In a few more years we shall doubtless have the whole series, from the time of Alexander downwards, fully : developed at present, in these detached notices, we can expect to do no more than hazard fresh conjectures, and wipe out former errors as we advance. There are but few authors to assist us in our task, and the passages from them have been so often repeated, that it will be unnecessary again to quote them. Neither Bayer's work nor De Sacy's are in our library: but, I have to thank Prof. Wilson for kindly sending me sketches, made by himself, of the Bactrian coins depicted in the former author, and in Sestini and Visconti, several of which I am able to recognise. Of individual friends, who have favoured me with their aid in furnishing specimens and information, I cannot omit mentioning Capt. Wade, Dr. Swiney, and Col. Stacy: 1 the services of the latter numismatologist will be more fully appreciated when we come to talk of Hindú coins. In Bactrian, the field is, of course, less open to collectors on this side the Satlaj; yet not a few very fine coins have been picked up, even within the limits so successfully run over by Col. Tod himself. The coins of the two first princes of Bactria, by name Theodotus I. and II. are yet unknown; perhaps they never struck money, but were content with the Syrian currency then prevalent. With Euthydemus begins our collection-a purely Grecian coinage, bearing only Greek inscriptions, and, as far as hitherto known, all of silver. The coins of Demetrius are more rare, but equally beautiful with those of his predecessor, and supposed father. Heliocles, the prince introduced on the authority of Visconti, will, I think, turn out to be our Agathocles. With Menander begins the system of native legends on the reverse, which is followed up without intermission throughout the whole series to the barbarous Kadphises. Some only of the coins of Eucratides have a Pehlvi legend, as will be hereafter explained. As the majority of the coins now to be introduced have these native legends on the reverse, it will better enable us to describe them if we begin by explaining what we have been able to make of the alphabet of this native language: which, from its marked difference from other types of the same character, I have ventured to term Bactrian-Pehlví. Mr. Masson first pointed out, in a note addressed to myself, through the late Dr. Gerard, the Pehlví signs which he had found to stand for the words MENANAPOT, ΑΠΟΛΛΟΔΟΤΟΥ, ΕΡΜΑΙΟΥ, ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ, and ΣΩΤΗΡΟΣ. When a supply of coins came into my own hands, sufficiently legible to pursue the inquiry, I soon verified the accuracy of his observation; found the same signs, with slight variation, constantly to recur; and extended the series of words thus authenticated, to the names of twelve kings, and to six titles or epithets It immediately struck me that if the genuine Greek names were faithfully expressed in the unknown character, a clue would, through them, be formed to unravel the value of a portion of the alphabet, which might, in its turn, be applied to the translated epithets and titles, and thus lead to a knowledge of the language employed. Incompetent as I felt myself to this investigation, it was too seductive not to lead me to a humble attempt at its solution. In plate xii. are contained the whole of these corresponding legends, Greek and Pehlví, collated from a very numerous collection, and deemed to be of sufficient authenticity to be assumed as the data of this inquiry. At the risk of being thought tedious, I will proceed to detail, letter by letter, the authority upon which each member of the new alphabet is supported. 1 Of Indian coins, my list of donors would be considerably swelled; but it would be too like ostentation to enumerate them in this place. 2 [It will be seen that, since this was written, several coins of Diodotus have been discovered: ante, p. 26.] (1) 9 a. No less than four names, viz., Apollodotus, Antimachus, Antilakides, and Azos, commence with the Greek alpha, which in all four cases is represented by the Pehlví character 9. To this, therefore, there can be no reasonable hesitation in ascribing the value of the initial a or alif, although it will be seen presently that there is another a more conformable with the ordinary Pehlví. It must be remarked that the present letter only occurs at the beginning of words. [) = a.] (2)e. Two names, Ermaios and Eucratides, begin with the epsilon, and are found in the Pehlví to have the initial; this, on consideration, may be a variation of the initial vowel above given, to endue it with the sound of e. Another form of the same letter, h, occurs in one or two cases, expressing u; but the examples of these being too few to inspire certainty, I merely throw out the remark as a conjecture of analogy with the application of the initial alif of the Persian. [✅ = Q e.] : (3) Po. The next circumstance of note is, that every word, without any exception, ends in the letter P, sometimes written P. The latter may perhaps be called the finished or capital character, bearing an analogy to the Devanagarí letter, which is completed by a stroke on the top, as this is by one below for we shall find that most of the other letters admit of the same addition. P, then, I have supposed to represent the terminal h of the Hebrew; or the short o-micron of the Greek, chiefly because I find it upon the later series of coins bearing native words in Greek characters, which I described in my last essay, p. 129; that every word there ended in o: and, as I then remarked, M. Burnouf explains that sound, in the Zend, to be the constant representative of the masculine nominative termination of the Sanskrit as, or Greek os. The letter o never occurs in the middle of a word, as far at least as my experience proves. Some resemblance exists between it and the Zend o; but no letter in the known Pehlvi alphabets can be compared with it. [P = s.] (4) U or Ym. Of this letter we have three examples; one, initial, in Menandrou; two, medial, in Ermaiou and Antimachou: there can be no doubt therefore of its being equivalent to m, although it differs essentially from all the recognised forms of this letter in the Pehlví alphabets of sculptures and coins. It should be remarked, however, that, in the case of Menandrou, it is affected with a vowel mark, U; which, for reasons afterwards to be brought forward, I suppose to be the short i or kasra. Sometimes a dot is seen under this letter, which may have the power of some other vowel, probably the short a. [U = ♬ m.] PA, and in Ermaiou, PAUTY: (5) Az, j, or y. This letter occurs in Azou, wherein it represents the sound of z and of y. Sanskrit, which is pronounced both as j and y. only the letter z for the former sound. Nothing like this letter is found in the other Pehlví alphabets, in the same position. [^= y.] (6) p. Of this, two examples are found; one in Apollodotou, PH; the other in Philoxenou, PH, where it probably stands in lieu of the aspirated p. [ t = ч p.] (7) n. Of this letter we find instances in Menandrou, PEE (?Minano), and in the example of Philoxenou last cited. There are others less decided, and some uncertainty prevails, through the apparent substitution occasionally of an for an n. The Pehlvi alphabet of sculptures has nearly the same form of n. [{ = T n.] (8), 7, 2, P, 7, s. In the Chaldaic, and its derivative alphabets, so 1 "Dans les anciens manuscrits Zend, 6 final représente la syllabe Sancrite as; comme en Pâli et en Prácrit, . . . . l'ó long se trouve d'ordinaire à la fin d'un mot." -Obs. sur la Gramm. de Bopp, par M. Eug. Burnouf. |