XV. SPECIMENS OF HINDU COINS DESCENDED FROM THE PARTHIAN TYPE, AND OF THE Among the coins extracted from the Manikyála tope were two that excited more than ordinary curiosity, from their having marginal inscriptions in Sanskrit characters around a device in all other respects of the Sassanian type. The inscription (which will be found in pl. v., pp. 94, 123, ante) baffled all attempts to decipher it. The repetition of the word Srí left little doubt of its language being Sanskrit, but neither with the aid of modern nor ancient alphabets could the sentence be made out. The individual letters seemed to be श्रीहितिविरधेरभवदरपविर श्रीयहितिणचदवजारि : Shortly afterwards, among the coins procured for me by Karámat 'Alí, another instance of the mixture of legends was discovered [pl. vii. fig. 6, p. 123]; and here the name was, clearly, aga Sri Vasudeva, either denoting the god Krishna, or the Indian monarch of that name alluded to in the Persian histories. Masson's last memoir, containing one or two coins of the same class, led to a fresh scrutiny of our respective cabinets, whence, with Cunningham's aid, I have now assembled a tolerable group of Indo-Sassanian specimens; for inspection at least, though it will be difficult to say much about them. The distinctive characters of the Sassanian or Parthian coins are, the 'fire-altar' reverse, the peculiar headdress of the king with flowing fillets,—the latter sometimes attached to the shoulders, and a legend in the Pehlví character. There is, however, as Masson has pointed out in a memoir ('Jour. As. Soc. Beng.', vol v., p. 711), a marked difference between our coins (called by Tod of a Parthian dynasty unknown to history') and the genuine series of Persia proper. Sassanian coins, of the type common to Persia, are never found at Beghrám, according to Masson, although they are brought for sale in abundance to the bázár of Kábul. Two exceptions, however, are noted-one, an extensive series of small copper coins having a crowned head on the obverse, with a name in the same character as that on fig. 3, greatly resembling the corrupted Greek of the deteriorated nano rao group :-the commonest inscription can be exactly represented by the English type роворо. One of this group, supposed by Masson to bear the 'Bámíán' name, was depicted in his note on the antiquities of that place in vol. v. On the reverse of all these is the fire-altar without supporters, 'demonstrating, at least,' as Masson writes, that they were adorers of Mithra; while from the numbers in which these coins occur at Beghrám, it may be further inferred that they were current there, and that the sovereigns they commemorate ruled there: although the difficulty then presents itself to determine at what period to introduce their sway, with the mass of Greek and Indo-Scythic coins before us. The coins themselves, however numerous, may be reduced into three series with reference to the nature of the head-dress: the first class bearing a helmet; the second a crown with a ball above it; and the third a tripartite crown surmounted by an arch of jewels.' All these head-dresses, it must be remarked, are met with in the regular Sassanians of Persia, and it may therefore be possible that they were but a provincial coinage of the same dynasty. It was under this impression that I omitted to engrave the figures of these coins, reserving them for a Sassanian series; although some of them would have served remarkably well as the precursors or prototypes of the copper coins about to be described in pl. xxxiv. The second exception noted by our countryman at Kábul is the Indo-Sassanian group, figs. 3, 5, and 6,1 of pl. xxxiii. The strongly-marked Indian features of the busts, and their plentiful occurrence at Beghrám, especially of their copper money, prove these princes to have ruled here. The heads are remarkable for the bulls' (or buffaloes') skulls around them, some having four or five of these ornaments, but in general one only surmounts the cap. The legend is in a peculiar and unknown type. The reverse is distinguished by the wheel over the heads of the altar-defenders.' A great many of the type No. 5 were extracted from the principal tope of Hiddah near Jalálábád. (See vol. v. p. 28, Jour. As. Soc. Beng.') [See also Ariana Antiqua,' pl. xvii. fig. 8, p. 399, 'Jour. Roy. As. Soc.', xii., pl. iii. and p. 345.] Masson ('Jour. As. Soc. Beng.,' v., 711, and 'Ariana Antiqua,' xvi., 18, 19, 20,) refers them to the Kaiáníán dynasty of Persian historians, to whom he would also attribute the Bámíán antiquities. He cannot of course here allude to the early branch, which includes Cyrus, Cambyses and Darius Hystaspes, for it is very evident that the coins before us cannot equal, much less surpass, in antiquity the celebrated Daric archers of Spartan notoriety. He must rather speak of their far descendants, to whom the present independent chiefs of Saístan still proudly trace their origin. This race, under the name of Tajik, claims proprietary right to the soil, though encroached upon by the Afgháns on all sides; and at Bámíán they are found inhabiting the very caves and temples constructed by their infidel progenitors. As to the probable date of these coins, then, little more can be conjectured than that they were contemporaneous with the Sassanian dynasty in Persia, viz., between the third and sixth centuries. Their frequent discovery in the Panjáb topes, accompanied by the Indo-Scythics having Greek legends, should give them a claim to the earlier period; but, as far as the fire-worship is concerned, we learn from Price's Muhammadan history, that as late as the reign of Masa'úd, son of Sultán Mahmud of Ghazní (A.D. 1034), a race, supposed to be the remnant of the ancient Persian stock, submitted to his arms,' who had doubtless maintained their national faith to that time unchanged. The intimate relation between the worshippers of Mithra and the followers of the Vedas, is established by the affinity of the language in which the books of The learned Zoroaster is recorded, with the Sanskrit. restorer of this ancient text, indeed, cites some reasons for giving priority to the Zend as a language, and he finds many occasions of interpreting the verbal obscurities of the Vedas from analogies in the latter. I cannot refrain in this place from noticing-in allusion to Masson's location of the Kaiáníans-a passage in Burnouf's most elaborate Commentaire sur le Yaçna,' just received from Paris, bearing upon this point, and leading to the unexpected conclusion that the Kaiáníans of Persia, and the Súrya-vansas of India, are the same, or have a common origin; the word kai-prefixed to so many names Kai-umar, Kai-kubád, Kai-kaous, Kai-khusrau, etc.)— having the same signification as the Sanskrit fa kavi, 'the Sun.' Against such a hypothesis, however, M. Burnouf confesses that the Gujarátí translator of the 'Yaçna,' Neriosingha, renders the word kai simply by the Sanskrit equivalent for 'king.' I give the passage at length, as of first importance in a discussion on a mixed Indo-Sassanian coinage: 'Je n'ai pu, jusqu'à présent, determiner si les Kaïaniens, ou les rois dont le nom est precédé de ké (en Zend, kavi), sont les rois soleil ou des rois descendant du soleil: en d'autres termes, si le titre de soleil a été joint au nom du chacun de ces rois, uniquement pour indiquer la splendure de leur puissance; ou bien, si le chef le cette dynastie a passé pour descendre du soleil, et s'il a laissé ce titre à ses successeurs, comme cela a eu lieu dans l'Inde pour les 'Suryavança.' Je ne veux pas ajouter une hypothèse étymologique aux traditions fabuleuses, dont les Parses ont mélé l'histoire de ces rois; mais il serait intéressant de retrouver la forme Zende du nom du premier des Kaïaniens, de Kobâd, nom dans lequel on decouvrirait, peut-être, le mot kavi (nom. kavá et kava), 'soleil.' Si 'Kobâd' pouvait signifier le soleil' ou 'fils du soleil,' la question que nous posions tout-à-l'heure serait resolue, et les autres Kaïaniens n'auraient reçu le titre de kavi (ké) que parceque la tradition |