for though the one die continues to shew a gradual improvement upon the ancient contremarques, the lower surface of the coin is still left blank.1 Next we perceive the incipient indication of a reverse, arising, possibly, out of the necessity for a sort of catch on the smooth anvil which hitherto appears to have been employed. This innovation also may be detected in its various scales of elaboration, from the rough intaglio needed to fix the planchet, up to the nearly complete device of Nos. 45, 46: or otherwise, as in the case of many of the Behat coins, the object in view may be seen to have been more simply attained by the convex surface given to the reverse of the piece. I do not propose to follow out this subject more at large it is sufficient to say, that for this section of Hindústán its own metallic records efficiently prove the self-instruction of its inhabitants; and the several steps in invention which led to the final production of the excellent silver coins of Amogha.

To the evidence derived from manipulative indications may be added those of the designs and treatment of the die-devices, which in like degree evince independent thought. The Indian figures follow the ideal models of their own land, and bear no trace of the conventionalities of Greek art. The devices, though at times rising far above mediocrity, affect only local associations, and are as free from all symptom of imitation of the favourite subjects of the Greek mint-masters as their details are deficient in the boldness and freedom of the classic dies. On the other hand, the re-productive process can be traced in all its degradations at a subsequent period-when the indigenous races came to supersede the sovereignty of the Bactrian-Greeks; and the contrast shews how very different was the action of the downward course, among the same people, in copying foreign prototypes-in opposition to the free development of their own accepted models. In illustration of this, I have only to refer to the Satrap coins previously noticed as imitated

1

[Coins found on the Jamna-having a stag device and the legend Ramatasa, -with their modifications, etc.]

2

from the hemidrachmas of Strato; to the Minerva Promachos on the Saurashtran coins; or to the profile on the Gupta silver money.3

Nos. 50, 51, pl. xx., and their cognate series pertaining to a more westerly division of the country, are peculiarly instructive in their approximation to the standard type of the copper coins of Agathocles and Pantaleon (pl. xxvii., figs. 6, 7, 8, 9). Prinsep has elsewhere remarked upon this assimilation, which, however, Prof. Wilson seems somewhat inclined to disavow, when he observes, They are both rude lumps of copper, it is true, but they have nothing else in common; and the style of the Greek coins, however barbarous, is very superior to these Buddhist coins.' Whatever the merit of the execution, there remains the more important question whether these so-entitled 'Buddhist coins' are imitations of the Greek mintages, or whether the Greek money of analogous type represents an improvement upon the indigenous currency. I myself should certainly lean towards the latter deduction. I find an example of the earliest form of oblong sections of copper, impressed with the stamp of an elephant, of a character similar to the ordinary reverse of the Buddhist coins, associated with the 'Taurus' symbol so frequent on the Eastern series. Next I would refer to the limited and imperfect mechanical execution of the Buddhist coins; in that they indicate a compromise short of a perfect coin, having the upper face struck inwards with a square die of less superficial extent than the ordinary surface of the picce, which punch is seemingly driven home, with a view to communicate through the metallic texture, a certain degree of convex protrusion, which has the effect of filling in the cavities of the device on the reverse, the die for which, as has been previously shewn in other

1['Jour. As. Soc. Beng.', vii. of 1854.]

2 [Pl. xxvii., fig. 8, 9.]

3 [Pl. iv., fig. 20, and pl. xxvii., figs. 10, 11, 12.]

4 [British Muscum, weight, 40 grs.]

specimens, partakes more of the nature of an anvil, with an intaglio engraved upon its surface, than that of a second die, in the usual acceptation of the term. The Bactrian-Greek coins, on the other hand, though nearly assimilating in many of their details,' take higher ground in the scale of art, not only in technic merit, but more definitively; inasmuch as their obverse and reverse dies, if not uniform and exactly opposed on the two surfaces, are of broader expanse in proportion to the size of the metal to be impressed, and they are equally raised in the gradations of the ordinary advance of coinage, in exhibiting legends, the vernacular transcript of which, at least, there would have been no difficulty in the local mint-masters imitating, had the indigenous coins been derivatives from the Greek stock.

In brief, the simple rule for the test of all these questions would be that, while there may well be retrogression in artistic execution, there will seldom be oblivion of mechanical adaptations when once communicated.

Another argument of no inconsiderable weight against the priority of the Greek examples of these associate mintages is, that the adoption of the square form of piece was opposed to the home practice of the western nations, while it was a natural sequence in the order of local coinages.

I have quoted the opinions of Burnouf and Wilson à-propos to Prinsep's first enquiry as to the derivation of the art of coining among the people of India (p. 53), but I have reserved any observations of my own on the subject, till I could illustrate their tenor in direct connexion with the figured exemplars whose fabric and execution should vindicate my deductions.

Prof. Wilson, it will be seen, hesitates to admit the originality or independence of the local development of this art, though, as I have before hinted, he might well have afforded to express a more authoritative judgment in favour of the inventive

[The weights of the two classes assimilate closely,-four good specimens of the 'elephant' and 'lion' coins in the British Museum weigh severally, 181, 191, 193, and 201 grains. Two undamaged coins of Agathocles give 183 and 194 grs.]

claims of the race whose literature he has contributed so largely to make known to the European world of modern days! I, for my part, have no reserve in conceding to the early inhabitants of Hindústán a creative and improving faculty, such as sufficed to produce, without any apparent foreign aid, such specimens of mint workmanship as may fairly be designated complete coins.

The shades and gradations of this progress towards the mechanism of what we understand by coined money, may be exemplified in the collateral efforts of invention the different series display, each in its own order and degree. Had India waited for Greek art to teach it how to fabricate money, India's exhumed produce should have betrayed to us nothing short of coins of full die-struck maturity. As I have before remarked, to whatever point artistic execution might chance to advance, the country so instructed was not likely to have degenerated to the more crude and imperfect processes of undeveloped science. Once learnt, the combination of the two dies was but little more difficult than the application of one; and certainly its simplicity and effectiveness would recommend it far beyond the troublesome and unsatisfactory process of a separate casting for each individual piece, or any other of the initial efforts towards the production of money, eventually so far perfected in situ, that modern civilization rests content with pieces but little improved upon the form thus early adopted.

Having disposed so far of the internal evidence bearing on the origin and development of these early coinages, it is needful to examine to what extent the literature of the country contributes material for the determination of the epoch of the initial phase of Indian money. The solution of this question unfortunately depends upon the due definition of a second problem : that is, the age of the work from which we draw the scant testimony immediately available.

Prof. Wilson' is of opinion that the Laws of Manu, though

[I annex some remarks with which Prof. Wilson has favored me, in reply to my query as to the date of Manu: "Sir William Jones' estimate of the date of Manu,

disfigured by interpolations, and only cast into their present form in about 200 B.C.—are still entitled to date many authentic portions of their text from 800 B.C. The passages relating to money and fines in the eighth and ninth books,' though inconsistently contrasted in the translation, sufficiently accord in the original version, where any absolute equivalent for the term money' is altogether wanting. If it be permissible, therefore, to accept these passages as veritable portions of the original, we may infer, that, at or about 800 B.C., the Hindús were already in possession of such a scheme of exchange as recognised the use of fixed and determinate weights of metal, not only as general equivalents and measures of value; but further, that the system had already advanced so far as to adopt small and convenient sections of metal into the category of current money; and that the punch-marked pieces of the Plates may be taken to exemplify the first germs of improved commercial and fiscal aptitude, expressed by the transitional movement from normal weights to absolute coins."

I conclude these digressions from the original text of my

eight centuries before Christ, is based upon a very fanciful and inconclusive analogy, and not entitled to any weight whatever. In fact, the Laws of Manu are a compilation of the laws of very different ages; many are word for word the same as the Sutras of some of the oldest Rishis. There are various unquestionable proofs of high antiquity-the people of Bengal, Orissa, and the Draviras of the South were not Hindus when one passage was written; and Caldwell places Dravira civilisation through the Brahmans six or seven centuries before Christ-there is no mention of, or allusion to, Siva or Krishna, which places the work before the Mahabharat';there is evident familiarity with the Vedas, persons and legends being alluded to not found anywhere else. All such passages I could consent to consider at least as old as 800 B.C. On the other hand, there are many references to the merit of Ahinsa non-injury of animal life,' and these are probably later than Buddhismand there is mention of the Chinas, a name that Sinologues say is not older than two centuries before Christ; but this may be an interpolation. However, I should think the work may have been put together about that time, although very much of it is a great deal older."]

1

[Paras. 120, 140, 151, 159, 166, 169, 212, 213, 215, 220, 284, 298 (307?), 319, 330, 361, 392, 393, and page 399.]

2 [I abstain from definitively quoting the following passage among my proofs of the existence of coined money in India prior to the advent of the Greeks, as I am aware that, though some translations render xphμara anpilμnσav by 'numeratâ pecuniâ,' yet other authorities seem to disavow such an interpretation:-Mitford, v., 418; Thirlwall's History of Greece,' vii., 53; Arrian, p. 455, (Ed. Buchon, Panthéon Littéraire').Ως δὲ ἐπελαζεν ἤδη τῇ πόλει ̓Αλέξανδρος, ἥντινα μητρόπολιν εἶχεν