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if so, it will fix the date to the latter half of the third century. At any rate, it is fair to suppose that the system was copied from the Roman coins, to which many other circumstances of imitation may be traced; among these, the soldier trampling on his vanquished foe in fig. 14; and the radiated head of fig. 26, the coin without a name, which is connected with the rest of the series by the equestrian reverse, seems an imitation of the radiated crown of the Roman emperors of the same period.

Plate XXII. figs. 1, 2, 3.-Three coins of Azos, having on the obverse, a Brahmany bull, and on the reverse, a panther or lion. The monograms on all three differ legends in Greek and Pehleví as above described.

Figs. 4, 5.-On these the bull is placed with the Pehleví on the reverse, while a well-formed elephant occupies the place of honor on the obverse.

Figs. 6, 7, 8.—In these the place of the elephant is taken by a Bactrian camel of two humps. No name is visible on any, but the Pehlevi word P is plain on No. 8, and their general appearance allows us to class them with the foregoing coins of Azos.

Fig. 9.-Here a horseman, with couched spear, in a square or frame, occupies the obverse, and the bull again the reverse: the word Azou is distinct on both sides. The device and attitude of the horseman will be seen to link this series with the coins of Nonos, Azilisos, and others, that are as yet nameless.

Figs. 10, 11.-A figure seated on a chair, holding a cornucopia, marks the obverse of this variety; while on the reverse, we perceive a Hercules or Mercury. It was from fig. 11, (a coin presented by MOHAN LA'L to Dr. GRANT,) that I first discovered the name AZOY, afterwards traceable on so many others.

Figs. 12, 13.-The obverse of this variety affords important information, in the attitude of the seated prince. It plainly proves him to be oriental. The scarf on the erect figure of the reverse is also peculiar. This coin accords with one depicted in the Manikyála plate, vol. iii. pl. xxvi. fig. 2.

Plate XXIII. fig. 14.-Is one of six coins in the Ventura cabinet of the same type. The soldier trampling on a prostrate foe betokens some victory. The female figure on the reverse, enveloped in flowers, seems to point to some mythological metamorphosis. The name and titles are distinct.

Figs. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21.-Are all closely allied, while they serve to explain figs. 11, 12, and 15, in the plate of Lieut. BURNES' coins, (J. A. S. vol. ii. p. 314,) and figs. 30, 31, 32, 33, 45, of MASSON's fourth series, vol. iii. pl. x. They are for the most part of copper-plated, or billion, and in consequence well preserved; the single Pehlevi letters 9, 1, , and may be observed as monograms, besides the usual compounds. On 21 and 22, are the first indications of a fire altar.

Fig. 22.-This copper coin is the last on which the name Azos occurs, and although quite distinct in the Pehleví, it is corrupt and illegible in the Greek. The device is similar to the preceding, with exception of a curious circular monogram, which will be found also on the coins of Kadaphes hereafter. MASSON'S fig. 47, is the same coin.

Fig. 23.-A very deeply cut coin, commences a new series, in which, the form of the Greek letters is materially changed. The legend is now

BACIAEVC BACIAEWN CWTHP METAC, without the insertion of any name*; and the monogram is the one frequently described as the key symbol, or the trident with a ring below it.

In Pehleví the first portion corresponds with the Greek, PAPER 720; the conclusion is unfortunately not visible. The letter appears on the field of the reverse, which bears a portrait of a priest, extending his hand over a small fire-altar.

Figs. 24 and 25-May be safely called varieties of the above, still retaining the Pehleví on the reverse. A counterpart of fig. 24 will be found in fig. 15 of BURNES' collection.

Fig. 26. This is by far the most common coin discovered in the Panjab and Afghanistán. Bags full have been sent down in excellent preservation, and yet nothing can be elicited from them. The present specimen is engraved from a coin in Colonel STACY's cabinet, found In Malwa; but the same coin has been engraved in the As. Res. vol. xvii.; in BURNES' collection, fig. 13; also, 10 of pl. xiv., in the same volume and in MASSON's series, 26, 27, 28. It was the first coin found in India on which Greek characters were discovered, or noticed. The trident monogram connects it with the foregoing series; but it is impossible to say to whom they both belong. I have placed them next to Azos, from the similarity of the horseman. They are all copper coins, of high relief, and generally in good preservation.

:

AZILISUS.

Figs. 27, 28.-Were it not that the name in these two coins is distinctly AZIAIZOr in the Greek, and PH in the Pehleví, they might both have been classed in the preceding group, especially with fig. 9. The bull of fig. 28, is surmounted by two monograms, like those of the Lysius coins. It is so far singular, that while the name of the prince AZILISUS seems compounded of the two names Azos and Lysius, the obverse and reverse of his coins should be counterparts of theirs. The name itself is quite new, and we can only venture to assign his position in proximity to his prototype, Azos.

Plate XXIV. HERMÆUS.

Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4. One silver and three copper coins of HERMÆUS, selected from a considerable number in order to develop the whole circle of marginal inscription, seldom complete on a single specimen. The description of one will serve for all, since, contrary to usage, the impression on the silver and copper is precisely alike.

Fig. 1.-A silver coin in the Gerard collection.

Obverse. The king's head with simple diadem; legend in corrupted Greek ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΣΩΤΗΓΟΣ ΕΓΜΑΙΟΥ.

* Mr. MASSON attributed this series to a prince, whom he named Sotereagas.

Reverse. Jupiter seated; his right hand extended. Monogram legend PAU PAR PAT, malakάo rakako Ermayo.

; Pehleví

Mr. MASSON supposes HERMEUS I. to have reigned at Nysa (hod. Jelalabad,) because one of the topes opened in that neighbourhood contained several of his coins; they have, however, been found in equal abundance in the Panjáb, and it will be safer in the present paucity of our knowledge to adhere to the general term "Bactrian," without attempting to subdivide the Greek dominion into the separate states, of which it probably consisted throughout the whole period of their rule.

UNADPHERRUs.

Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8.Four coins of the prince made known to us by Mr. MASSON under the name of UNADPHERRUS. They are numerous, of rude fabric, and more clear on the Pehlevi than the Greek side. The device on all is the same, namely:

Obverse. A bearded head with diadem: inscription as made out from the combined specimens BACIAENC CшTHгпC VNA□Terr□v :—in some the titles are in the nominative case.

Reverse. A winged figure of Victory holding out a chaplet or bow: Pehleví inscription Pε Pf PU.

This may be rendered malakáo fareto nanado; or the last word may be P for owinpos. If be p and h, we might convert the word letter for letter into phero; making f an r. The first half of the name VNA□ or VNAA seems to be omitted in the Pehleví, unless nanado be intended for it; but then the title Saviour' will be wanting.

The only recorded name that at all approaches to this barbarous appellation is Phraotes or Phrahates, whom PHILOSTRATUS asserts to have reigned at Taxiles, south of the Indus, about the commencement of the Christian era. He was visited by APOLLONIUS TYANEUS in his travels, who conversed with him in the Greek language. The execution of the coins before us, does not well agree with the magnificence and elegance of PHRAOTES' court, as described by PHILOSTRATUS, "the residence of dignified virtue and sublime philosophy*;" but much allowance may be made for exaggeration. The Bactrian sway was already broken, and the country in a disturbed state. Whether Parthian or Indian, PHRAOTES was tributary to the Southern Scythians, whom he gladly subsidized to defend him against the more savage Huns, who finally drove before them the Scythians, who had seized upon the Bactrian kingdomt." APOLLONIUS describes a magnificent temple of the sun at Taxiles. The fact, frequently mentioned in history, of the native princes of India conversing and † Ditto, I., 142.

"

* Maurice's Modern Hindostan, I. 152.

writing in Greek, is satisfactorily confirmed by the discovery of the present coins bearing Greek legends with names evidently native.

Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.-This very numerous group of copper coins is attributed by MASSON to ERMÆUS the Second, the first three letters of whose name certainly appear on some few specimens (as fig. 10); but his name is not to be found on the reverse in the Pehleví, which is totally distinct from the preceding coins, and yet it is the same on all the specimens I have compared; although great variety exists in the Greek legends, as if they had been copied at random from other coins. The device of all is the same.

Obverse. A head with curly hair, no beard, in general miserably engraved.
For marginal inscription; Fig. 9. has ....ΛΕΩΣΣΤΗΡΟΣ ΣΥΛΟ......
Fig. 10, BAZIAE.... EгM...

Fig. 11.-.... NO KAAPICHC and fig. 12, BACIAEQE......EOT. Reverse. A spirited figure of HERCULES, standing with his club, and lion-skin cloak. Pehleví inscription, as well as it can be made out from a careful examination of a great many specimens, PAT PACK TIHU.

This text differs so entirely from all we have hitherto seen, that I cannot attempt to decypher it, nor even to distinguish the titles from the name. I have merely placed at the head, from a faint trace of the initial word Pylu, between the letters of which other characters appear to be introduced. The decided trace of KADPHISES' name on several coins of the type, incline me to place it at the lowest station in the present series, as a link with the series already fully described of that Indo-Scythic sovereign and it will be remarked that the letter or symbol + is visible on the bull and raja coins of this prince also; indeed their whole Pehleví inscription much resembles, if it does not coincide entirely with, the present example.

KADAPHES.

Figs. 14, 15, 16.-If any thing were wanting, however, to connect the two lines, these coins would supply the gap. One of them was presented by Lieut. BURNES to the Society, and was mistaken for the horseman coin described in page 343. The name was more fully made out from six coins of VENTURA's and three of KERAMAT ALI'S collections. The monogram agrees with one of the Azos series, fig. 22, as before remarked.

Obverse. A neatly engraved head with diadem and legend................ KAAA÷EX ΧΟΡΑΝΟΥ.

Reverse. Jupiter seated, left hand extended; the wheel monogram, and legend in nearly the same characters as that of the preceding coins.

This coin will form an appropriate conclusion to my present notice, which, I believe, has embraced all the specimens properly attributable to the Bactrian group. The fire-altar on the next or Indo-Scythic coinage, forms a convenient mark of distinction, as well as the

disuse of the Pehleví character, which extends no further than to the first coinage of the series, namely, that of KADPHISES, with the bull reverse; and is quite illegible there, while the Greek is comparatively distinct. This group has, however, been sufficiently described my former papers.

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Before closing my present notice, I must use my privilege of amending the theory I advanced upon one of the coins from the Manikyála tope, (Vol. III, Pl. XXV, fig. 6, p. 441,) a Sassanian coin bearing the distinct Sanscrit name of Sri Vásu Deva. This being the patronymic of KRISHNA, I supposed the figure to represent that god as the Indian substitute for Mithra or HAIO. The face, however, was that of an aged human being, and I think it may be more rationally accounted for as such, on the following grounds.

Ferishta asserts that BASDEO had assumed the throne of Canouj in the year 330, A. D.; that Bahram the Persian king, was at his court in disguise, and was recognized by the nobleman who had taken tribute to Persia from the Indian king*. BASDEO reigned 80 years, and one of his daughters was married to BAHRAM, Now under these circumstances, it is natural to suppose, that the Sassanian monarch, out of compliment, may have affixed his father-in-law's portrait and name on some of his own coin: and the strongest evidence is thus afforded both of the historical fact, and of the date of this individual coin of the Manikyála set.

Proceedings of the Asiatic Society.
Wednesday Evening, July 1, 1835.

The Honorable Sir EDWARD RYAN, President, in the chair.
The Proceedings of the last Meeting were read.

The following gentlemen, Messrs. J. P. GRANT, WM. ADAM, W. H. BENSON, GEORGE EVANS, Lieut. A. S. PHAYRE, Mr. J. H. STOQUELER, Capt. J. G. TAYLOR, Mad. Cav. and Lieut. MONTRIOU, I. N. proposed at the last meeting, were balloted for, and duly elected members of the Society. The Secretary read the following reply from Government to the memorial presented, in conformity with the resolution of the last meeting. To the Honorable Sir EDWARD RYAN, Knt.

Genl. Dept. HONORABLE SIR,

President of the Asiatic Society.

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of an address, dated 3rd instant, transmitted by you to the Governor General in Council, on behalf of the Asiatic Society.

2. I am directed in reply to forward to you a copy of orders issued by the Supreme Government, on the 7th March, to the Committee of Public Instruction, which will make the Society acquainted with the views and

*Maurice, I., 150.

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