les regardait comme issus d'un fils du soleil. Je remarquerai encore, sans attacher toutefois beaucoup d'importance à ce rapprochement, qu'on trouve, dans l'histoire héroïque de l'Inde, plusieurs rois du nom de kavi, et notamment un fils de Priyavrata, roi d'Antarvêdí. Hamilton, dans l'index de ses 'Genealogies of the Hindús' cite quatre personnages de ce nom, sans parler de deux autres rois, dans le nom desquels figure ce même titre de kavi. Enfin M. Rosen a cité un vers, extrait d'un hymne du Rigvéda, dans lequel le mots viçâm kavim, voisins du composé vicpatim, doivent peut-être se traduire plutôt par hominum regem que par agricolarum vatem.'-' Commentaire sur le Yaçna,' chap. i. p. 455.

I now proceed to particularize the coins inserted in my plate.

INDO-SASSANIAN COINS, Pl. xxxiii.

2

Fig. 1, a silver coin in my cabinet of an unique type: OBVERSE :the prince on horseback, head disproportionate in dimensions. On the horse's neck is a flower-vase, which is probably supported by the man's left arm; on the margin are some indistinct Pehlví characters, and on the field a monogram, resembling the Nágarí letter. The device on the reverse is nearly obliterated.

Fig. 2, a copper coin, also unique: it escaped my detection among a number of old Bukhára Musalmán coins, or it should have appeared along with the 'bull and horseman,' or Rájput series, of December, 1835. It seems to link this curious outline group with the full-faced Sassanians of Vasudeva, etc.; for on the border of the obverse are Pehlví letters. The features of the supposed face are barely admissible as such, even to the lowest estimate of native art. The horse on the reverse is more palpable, but it seems more like a ṭughrá, or flourish of Persian letters, than ever. It is also reversed in position, and has

no Nágarí legend.

The coins of this genus, although we have found them connected with Dihlí sovereigns and Málwa rájas

"Genealogies of the Hindús,' p. 77. On trouve dans le Rik- et dans le Yadjourvéda, un roi nomme Cavasha (Colebrooke, 'Asiatic Researches,' viii. 399), et ce qui peut faire penser a quelque monarque Bactrien, c'est que ce Kavacha est père de Tura, dont le nom rappelle le Touran. Mais je ne crois pas, pour cela, que Kavacha puisse être identifié avec le mot Zend et Sanskrit kavi."

2

Perhaps the Kamakumbha, or ‘vase of abundance,' of Tod, 'Annals of Rájasthán, i. 603.

at one end of the series, evidently reach at the other to the bráhmanical rulers of the Panjáb, and probably Kábul. They are procured much more abundantly at the latter place (and on the site of Taxila, according to M. Court) than in any part of India. Some of them exhibit on their reverse the style of Arabic now known to belong to the Ghaznavi Sultáns, while others agree rather with the Ghorí type, and contain known names of that dynasty.

[In the absence of the coin itself, it would be rash to speculate upon the true purport of this obverse, or the tenor and language of the partially-visible legend. The reverse figure of the horseman, however, offers tempting material for the exercise of analytical ingenuity.

That the lines of which the device is composed were originally designed to convey, in more or less intelligible cypher, some Moslem formula, there can be little question. How much latitude in the definite expression of the letters was conceded to the needful artistic assimilation to the normal type, it may be difficult to say. But, though I should hesitate to pretend that my eye could follow the several letters of the full kalimah of Jys, I have no doubt that those words are covertly embodied in the lines forming portions of the general outline. The Kufic is palpable, when reading upwards from the front of the butt-end of the spear; portions of the J may be traced along the spear itself, and the rest may be imagined under the reasonable latitude already claimed; and, lastly, the all may be conceded in virtue of its very obvious final, which appears over the horse's hind-quarters.'

[While on the subject of Tughrás, I may claim excuse for noticing a most interesting example of the numismatic employment of early Kufic characters in the construction of a Sassanian device, which, though possibly emanating from a different site, and due to another period, connects itself not inappropriately with the

The practice of reticulating words and names into device embellishments for the coinage was in high favour with Sámání mint-masters;1 and we have numerous instances of a similar tendency among the Muhammadan races who succeeded to much of the civilization of the Bukhárá empire, with the modified boundaries or altered seats of government, incident to their progress towards the richer provinces of the South. To confine myself to a single exemplification, however, I may cite the Ghaznaví (Láhor) currency, with the recumbent bull in Tughrá on the obverse, and with a Kufic legend on the reverse. In the lines of this ancient and revered Hindú device, may here be read, in all facility and in two several directions, the name of the prophet of the Arabs-s."]

outlines of some of the figures in the present plate (xxxiii. 7, etc.) The coin to which I allude is in the cabinet of the late Col. Stacy: it is of copper, and imperfect striking or extended circulation has rendered its epigraph illegible in some of its most important details.

The obverse device consists of a mutilated Sassanian head, looking to the right, obviously composed of the wordsarranged in three lines.

رسول الله

suffices for the eye, the

serves for the

Of the

A dot in the open portion of the chin, and the initial symbolises the eyebrow and the lower line of the tiara. exterior legends the only word I am able to read with certainty is the in the front of the profile.

On the reverse, expressed in jumbled letters, may be traced the words

while the margin supplies the opening term, ductory portion of the central legend,

باله

الله وحده لا شريك له

J, and, doubtfully, the intro-
Y, and the remaining two sides are

= 104 A.H.

Although I am unable to discover any similitude between this reverse device and the conventional fire-altar and supporters, I cannot but infer that some such notion was intended to be conveyed; otherwise, it is difficult to account for the needless transposition of the legends, and the sacrifice of the normal forms of the Kufic letters in the centre of the piece, while the side portions of the design, which have nothing to do with the main device, are expressed in excellently-fashioned characters. (See also Fræhn, Die Münzen,' pl. xvi. figs. N and ; 'Novæ Symbolæ,' tab. ii. 14; 'Jour. As. Soc. Beng.', 1840, Capt. Hay's coins, figs. 6, 7)]

1 [Fræhn's 'Recensio Numorum Muhammedanorum:' Emiri Samanidæ. Petropoli, 1826.]

2 [Ex. gr., see 'Kings of Ghazní :' Jour. Roy. As. Soc., pl. iii. 153.]

Several of

The

Fig. 3, a silver coin in my cabinet (Karámat 'Alí). the same nature are depicted by Masson, as noticed above. execution is very bold, and the preservation equally good. A double blow has, however, confused the impression on the reverse.

The head-dress or helmet is surmounted by the head of a buffalo, in imitation, perhaps, of Menander's elephant trophy. The two wings common on the Sassanian cap are still preserved. The prince wears a profusion of pearls and handsome earrings. In front of his face is a legend in an unknown character, which can, however, be almost exactly represented by Nágarí numerals, thus: 318 03. None of the pure Pehlví is to be seen on either face, but on the shoulder in the corner is something like a Nágarí H, which is probably an m, not a bh. The fire-altar of the reverse is remarkable from the two 'wheels' or chakras over the officiating priests. We shall see more of these as we descend.

Fig. 4 is a silver coin in Swiney's possession: it is of inferior workmanship, the features beginning to be cut in outline. A diminutive figure (female) in front of the face holds a flower or cornucopia : just above can be discerned two small Sanskrit letters-ufa prati (or pratá)—which suffice to ally the coin with our present group.

[The interesting collection of coins made by Col. Abbott of the Bengal Artillery, chiefly gathered from the Hazárah country, of which he was once in political charge, enables me to add some novelties to Prinsep's solitary specimen of the IndoSassanian coinage, having legends exclusively in Sanskrit characters.

The bilingual and trilingual mintages of associated types will be reserved for consideration under Art. XX., in which Prinsep records his latest advances towards their definitive explication.

Fig. 1 represents the small figure in front of the profile, as it occurs on a coin in the British Museum, which is almost identical in its other typical details with the example delineated as No. 4, pl. xxxiii. The concluding letters of the name— -are all that remain visible on this piece.

...

दित्य

(No. 1.)