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ful nature.

Mr. WILSON read the whole Nara-gupta: Dr. MILL, Sasi

gupta. I have nothing new to offer on the subject*.

Having now ocular demonstration of the intimate relation of the Indo-Scythic with the 2nd class of Hindu coins, the question naturally suggests itself, whether history is altogether silent on a point of such curious interest?

In first contradiction of such an inference, we find that the IndoScythic origin of the Rahtore dynasty of Kanouj has been advanced on very plausible grounds by the highest authority on this subject, Col. Top, the annalist of Rájputána†. He obtained from a Jati, (Yati) or Jain priest of a temple at Nadolaye, an ancient town in Márwár, a genealogical roll of the Rahtores, about 50 feet in length. "After detailing the usual theogony, it describes the production of the first Rahtore from the spine (raht) of Indra,' the nominal father being YAVANASWA, prince of Parlipur.' Of the topography of Parlipur, the Rahtores have no other notion than that it was in the north but in the declared race of their progenitor, a Yavan or Greek prince of the Aswa or Asi tribe, one of the four which overturned the Greek kingdom of Bactria, we have a proof of the Scythic origin of this Rajput family."

May it not be possible that the Yavana prince here alluded to may be the Azos (in Pehleví Azo) of the series of Bactrian coins published in my last notice? The Sanscrit word Aswa would be pronounced Aso, and be thus written in Persian or Pehleví (as deo for deva, &c.) The number and variety of his coins would imply that the name or title was that of a considerable dynasty, and some of the devices, for example, Nos. 10, 11, Plate XXII. of the goddess holding a cornucopia, may have naturally been the prototype of the Kanouj coins.

A considerable interval (from 300? to 470 A. D.) provokingly occurs between the name of YAVANASVA and the next prince, in Col. ToD's list-whether also omitted in the Jain original, or filled up only by barbarous and uninteresting names, we are not informed. The blank is relieved at length by the name of a genuine Hindu, NAYANAPÁLA; but it happens that the missing part is the very one that could alone throw light upon our numismatic discoveries. Several coins (including the whole series of Kadphises and Kanerkis, intervene after

* Since finishing my plate, I have received a drawing of a small silver coin from Mr. TREGEAR, found at Jaunpur, having a head on one side, and on the other a bird, with outspread wings, under which in clearly defined characters is Y Chandra-gupta.

+ Tod's Annals of Rajasthan, vol. ii. p. 5.

Azos, before we are brought to the absolute link coins of the IndoScythic and Hindu dynasties.

The name of Nayana-pála bears so near a resemblance to Narayanagupta, that a strong temptation arises to regenerate Colonel ToD's prince in him, on the same grounds on which his predecessor has been brought to life in Azos.

Indeed it would hardly be exceeding the bounds of legitimate conjecture, (where all is mere conjecture,) to adopt a historical representative of our KANERKI himself in the KENEK-SEN of Colonel TOD, Sén being according to him merely a martial affix, equivalent to General or Sénapati.

KENEK-SEN, the founder of the Balhára dynasty according to the concurrent testimony of all the chronicles consulted by ToD, emigrated to Saurashtra about the year 144 A. D*. “ from the most northern province of India, Lohcote or Lahore." In date and locality this origin would agree well with KANERKI: nor would it even set aside the former supposition of the same prince being the Tartar KANISKA of the Cashmír history; since that prince is made the sixth in succession after ASOKA, the great patron of the Buddhists, who is placed by their chronology in 250 B. C., but who, when the correction for Chandra-gupta is applied, will fall full 50 years later.

In reasoning upon the probable seat of these obscure dynasties, it is by no means necessary to confine ourselves to one spot. The annals of Mewár, Delhi, Málwá, Sauráshtra, shew a continual intermixture, as different princes acquired the ascendancy.

Kanouj has been fixed upon as the locale of the present class of gold coins, for the obvious reason that they are most frequently found in its ruins, not that any history ascribes them to this town; for the history of Kanouj is a perfect blank anterior to the fifth, we may even say the tenth century: and if the town had been suddenly involved in destruction, it is only certain that the coins found afterwards in its ruins would be those of the particular epoch, whether coined there or elsewhere.

There are arguments in favor of placing the seat of government further to the west, for instance at Ujjain (Ujjayini.) In the first place, the perfect identity of the coin-alphabet with that of the Guzerát inscriptions lately decyphered by Mr. WATHENT :—then, the prevalent worship of the sun in Saurashtra, and at Ujjain, where this object still forms the distinguishing symbol on the coinage, agrees * TOD's Rajasthan, I. 215.

+ See preceding page 480.

The greater banner of Mewár also exhibits a golden sun on a crimson field, TOD I. 137.

well with the effigy of OKPO and APAOKPO on the Indo-Scythic coins*. Again, the peacock of many of the Kanouj reverses is found on one of the principal series of Saurashtra coins, as will hereafter be shewn ; and Colonel TOD states that this sacred bird of the Hindu Mars (KUMÁRA) was the favorite armorial emblem of the Rájpút warrior. Lastly, many of the names on these coins may be traced in the catalogues of the Málwá and Guzerát princes; Vikrama, Chandra, Samudra, Kumára, Ajita, &c. the last four are coupled it is true with the family affix pála instead of gupta; but both of these have the same signification.

In the Rájávali of Rája RAGHUNATH, quoted by WILFORD as the chief authority in Central and Western India, we find a sovereign named VIKRAMA reigning in the year 191 A. D. and succeeded, or rather supplanted 90 years later, by a SAMUDRA-PÁLA. The deeds attributed to these two are supposed to be merely an interpolation of the fabulous history of VIKRAMADITYA and SÁLIVÁHANA†: but the occurrence of these two names is very curious, allied to the circumstance and appearance of the two coins, figs. 25 and 26, of Plate XXXIX.

The only other instance of the occurrence of the name SAMUDraGUPTA, that I am aware of, is on the Allahabad pillar, where he appears as the son of a CHANDRA-GUPTA; and from the close similarity of the alphabets of the coins and of the láths, no reasonable doubt can be entertained that they relate to the same individual—a fact predicted by Dr. MILL in his valuable observations on this new race of kings (vol. iii. p. 267), to which the reader is referred for all the light that collateral history affords on the subject.

The name of VIKRAMA is referred by MARSDEN to Bikram-tschand (Vikrama-chandra) of the fourth century, in ANQUETIL's list of the kings of Central India‡. KUMÁRA-PALA is also one of the many names of SALIVAHANA.

There is no reason however why Kanouj should not at some periods have been united under one sovereignty with the western provinces. The great VIKRAMADITYA (whose appellation in full is found on one of MARSDEN'S Coins) conquered Indrapreshtha, and extended his sway over the whole of India.

The Rahtore sovereigns of Kanouj, after its conquest by NAYANAPÁLA, Col. ToD says, assumed the title of Kam dhuj (Káma dhvaja). * Bhatarka (sun-cherished) is a title of the earliest Balabhi Rája's in Mr. WATHEN'S inscriptions, p. 480..

† As. Res. IX. 135.

Num. Orient. II. 727.

If this alluded to their armorial insignia, we may thus find an explanation of the standard on the earlier coins ;-and it may be equally applied to the Aparajita dhvaja of fig. 16.

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Another curious circumstance is mentioned in Col. ToD's chronicles of Márwár, that may help us a step forward in the investigation of this obscure history. It is there said, DHARMA-BнUмво had a son, AJAYA CHANDRA. For twenty-one generations they bore the titles of Rao, afterwards that of Rája." We are again left in the dark as to who first assumed the title of Rája; but as we find the title Rao in Greek visible on the very latest coin that bears an inscription in that character; while on the fine gold coin discovered by Lieut. CONOLLY, of VIKRAMA, fig. 25, we have the title Mahárája Adhirája Srí, quite distinct; it must have been between the two that the change of title was assumed. But I should be inclined to interpret the above passage in the Yati's roll, as meaning that up to Aлi CHANDRA, or for the 21 generations preceding him, the title Rao had been used, and henceforward that of Rája was adopted: for why should the historian allude to the circumstance until the change of title actually took place? Moreover, there are only 16 generations mentioned from AJI CHANDRA down to the last of the Kanouj sovereigns, the celebrated JAYA CHANDRA or JEY-CHAND, anterior to whom the title was certainly borne, for we find it on the coins of VIKRAMA, SAMUDRA-GUPTA, and others, names not included in the list, but which we know from the style of the Deva Nágari character must have belonged to a much earlier epoch than the seventh or eighth century, in which BHUMBO is placed.

The Rev. Dr. MILL has led us to put little faith in the authority of the bards and panegyrists of the native courts; and it must be confessed, that the contrast of Colonel Tod's genealogy with the incontestible testimony of the Sanscrit inscriptions read by COLEBROOKE, FELL, and WILSON, is enough to perplex the most ingenious amalgamist! We must then maintain a thorough independence of all such traditionary documents, and adhere in preference to the faithful evidence of monuments and coins. In the present case, I have shewn how these confirm one another in a remarkable and unexpected manner, in regard to the names on the Allahabad pillar, inscription No. 2, all of which re-appear on these early Kanouj coins. In a subsequent paper I shall produce equally convincing evidence that those of the Benares and Delhi inscriptions are reproduced upon a second series of Kanouj coins of a much more modern character.

All then that can be now attempted is, to recapitulate the names

that have been brought to light in the present investigation, names for which we are indebted to the joint contributions of not less than a dozen friends*, leaving the proper arrangement of them to a more advanced stage of our knowledge than we at present possess.

The following are 'the names and titles that appear on the coins of the two last plates.

Sri Aparajita dhvaja Kumáragupta parákrama.

2. Sri Vikrama Chandra.

3. A'patti rurhah, or Bhupati rurha.

4. Kragipta paragu (pta.)

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6. Maharaja adhi rája Sri .... Sri pradyu Vikrama. 7. Sri Vikrama Narendra gupta.

8. Mahárája adhi rája Sri Samudragupta.

9. ..Srí bal vikrama Kumáragupta....

10. Ajita mañatrigupta

11. Asvamedha parákrama.

To these may be added the

12.

Vikramaditya of MARSDEN's collection, and the

13. Sasi-gupta, of Prof. WILSON's plates.

[To be continued.]

IV.-Application of Iron Rods, proposed to compensate for the strain occasioned by the tension of the strings upon Piano Fortes, thereby to prevent warping, and to render them more durable and better adapted to keep longer in tune. By Col. D. PRESGRAVE.

By a notice in your Journal, No. 17, May 1833, of some improvements that had been made in square piano-fortes, I am induced to send an account of a scheme, which I devised and put in practice in January, 1833. The object of which is to strengthen the instrument, so as to prevent warping or twisting, thereby rendering it more lasting and less liable to get out of tune.

It is stated in the above-quoted article, that it is by the slipping of the round iron pegs in their wooden sockets, that a piano gets out of tune; but I am inclined to think, that this is not to be attributed so much to that circumstance, as to other causes, such as change in the level of the instrument by the unceasing strain or tension upon it; the effect of temperature on the wires, and of the atmosphere on the porous material (wood) of which the instrument is constructed. Whilst pianos are very new, they require comparatively little tuning; * Ventura, Keraʼmat Ali, Wade, Tregear, CuNNINGHAM, BURT, STACY, WATSON, SMITH, SWINEY, CRACROFT, and CONOLLY.

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