KERAMAT ALI, have brought to light, before the antiquaries of Europe, and then to await their decision on the facts: it being my own duty to act as a faithful witness before this superior tribunal, nothing exaggerating, and nothing extenuating, in the delineation of figures and inscriptions, such as they appear in the originals now in my possession.

The subject which I propose to elucidate on the present occasion is, that of the coins connected with the tope of Mánikyála; as they naturally stand forward most prominent in offering materials for fixing the date of the building.

66

We learn from the état des travaux," that forty-four copper medals were found buried along with the principal cylinder, and several others in different parts of the masonry, besides the gold and silver coins enclosed in the cylinders themselves. On attempting a classification as far as their mutilated condition would allow, these were all (with the exception of two) found to be referrible to the five species depicted at the foot of plate xxii. : being in the following proportion :

Of figure 31, (shewn hereafter to belong to the Kanerkos groupe),—large,..
Of the same type, but smaller, (fig. 9, pl. xxv.)...................

Of the elephant type, (fig. 28, pl. xxii.).

Of the figure sitting with one foot up, (fig. 29, of do.)

Of the figure sitting cross-legged, (fig. 32, of do.)

Of the bull and raja, or Kadphises coin, (fig. 4, of pl. xxvi.).. with ten others which were too much defaced to admit of classification.

20

20

17

15

12

4

2

Although among these coins very few have legible inscriptions, the collections of Dr. GERARD and of SAYED KERAMAT ALI, in conjunction with the specimens depicted by Mr. MASSON, have furnished materials for decyphering them, in considerable abundance; indeed, of the several groups specified above, I have before me upwards of three hundred coins, of which thirty-two exhibit more or less of the bull and raja inscription: twenty that of the elephant coin: as many more that of the Kanerkos legend; and half a dozen that of the seated figures.

But, before entering upon the description of these coins, of which it must be remarked that we do not know the date a priori, although from their possessing Greek inscriptions, we necessarily refer them to an age not very distant from the Bactrian dynasty, it will be more satisfactory to bestow a little further attention upon the silver coins found in the first gold box (see page 317,) which I have already stated generally to belong to the known dynasty of the Sassanidæ, without however venturing to contract their date within narrower limits than the duration of that monarchy, namely, from the third to the seventh century of the Christian era.

Sassanian Coins of Mánikyála.

The characters on the obverse of the Sassanian coin (fig. 8, pl. xxi.) are not sufficiently distinct to enable us to decypher the name, even by placing it in juxtaposition with others of the same kind, which Sir R. KER PORTER states to have been read by himself" on the principles laid down by the Baron DE SACY."

There is one peculiarity however, which (supposing his reading to be correct) will serve our purpose equally well in identifying it. I allude to the very curious ornament of two wings embracing a crescent and star on the cap of the monarch. The same ornament is visible in a coin depicted by the author just mentioned in fig. 8, plate lviii. of his travels in Georgia and Persia, and the following is the account given of it in page 130, vol. ii. of the same work.

"This piece of money is more frequently met with than any other of the Sassanian dynasty. It is larger than most of the ancient currency, and on the whole very slightly executed. The diadem of the king has the singularity of being more in the shape of a helmet than a crown; it is winged, but surmounted by a crescent and star, instead of the customary globular form. The bust is encircled by a triple range of pearls, marked in equidistant divisions by a star and crescent. The letters which compose the legend are very complicated, running into each other like rapid writing, On the face of the medal they produce shapúri mezdezn, &c. and on the reverse, shapúri, with other letters too defaced to decypher. This SHAPUR must be the second of that name, (the seventh in descent from the first, who was the conqueror of Valerian;) and he also was a great man, being surnamed Zúlaktaf, and renowned for his victories over the Roman emperors JULIAN, CONSTANTIUS, &c."

It must be remarked however, that the head-dress of the coin differs from that of the sculpture of this monarch at Takht-i-Rustam, where his name and titles are inscribed in legible Pehlevi*.

SAPOR II. came to the throne on the hour of his birth, in A. D. 310, and reigned nearly seventy years, which is itself a strong reason in favor of his coins being more numerous than those of other Sassanian princes, and so far corroborates the appropriation of the winged headdress to him. He was more than once engaged in repelling the Tartar and Arab invaders of his territories. It was from his clemency to the Arabs that he obtained the surname of Zúlaktáf, which HERBELOT

* I was not aware until seeing it in KER PORTER that this character had been satisfactorily decyphered; unfortunately, the As. Soc. Library does not contain a copy of DE SACY'S Memoire sur les divers antiq. de la Perse, which furnished KER PORTER with the key to its alphabet.

explains to signify" aux épaules." Other Persian historians however, according to HERBELOT, make the title of this monarch Zúlaknáf aux ailes," or with the wings, interpreting it as an allusion to his clemency towards his Arab enemies, whom he on some occasion spared from massacre: taking it in its literal sense it may have applied to his usual head-dress, or metaphorically the title may have perhaps been typified by the device of wings upon his cap in the coins and effigies of the monarch. Assuming it to be satisfactorily proved any at rate that the silver coin in question belongs to this sovereign, we have at once a limit to the antiquity of the tope of Mánikyála, in the reign of SAPOR II.; that is, between the years of the Christian era 310-380: for it is natural to suppose that the coins deposited were of the species current at the time, as it has always been customary in the nations of the west so to deposit the current coins of the place on laying the foundations of temples, bridges, and other public works. Thus then we contract the date of the erection within the narrow space of these seventy years, which may be esteemed a sufficient approximation, in the absence of more positive information on the subject.

Before quitting the subject of the Sassanian coin, I must notice the other two coins already stated to assimilate with the Sassanian type, namely, figs. 10 and 11, of plate xxi. The headdress in these is also remarkable for the wings; although the absence of bushy hair and beard, attended with a difference of feature, forbid their being ascribed to the same prince, or at least to the same year of his reign. The chief peculiarity of these coins is their Devanagarí legend, which however illegible it may be in parts, contains the initial title of respect, Srí, repeated twice and in the same relative position-before the title and before the name itself,- -as is customary with Indian monarchs; for instance, Srí Mahárájádhi Rája Srí Chandra Gupta, &c. The name itself may probably be foreign.

The reverse of these coins, no longer a fire-altar with its attendant priests, bears a rudely executed front face with a head-dress of a peculiar form. Fortunately among the coins procured at Kábul by SAYED KERAMAT ALI, there is one which serves in a great measure to clear up the mystery of this ornament. I have depicted it as figure 6, of plate xxv. On one side of it we see the front face, and winged crown of Zúlaknaf, SHAPUR II., with the precise or naments on the margin of the obverse described by KER PORTER, and no Sanscrit epigraphe; while on the reverse we have the mysterious head-dress of figs. 10 and 11, and the legible Devanagarí inscription Srí Vásu déva, which is the patronymic appellation of KRISHNA the Indian Apollo.

At the epoch now established as the date of the tope, the ancient religion of Persia, the worship of the sun, or Mithras, had not only been restored to its former splendour among the Persians themselves, but it is acknowledged to have exercised a powerful influence on all other religions prevailing at the same time: even the Christian religion was tinctured with many of the mysteries of the Mithriac worship*, and an attempt had been made by SCYTHIEN, TEREBINTHUst, and lastly by MANES, in the latter part of the third century, and in the very court of the Persian monarch, to incorporate the doctrines of CHRIST with the mysteries of ZOROASTER, in a system of his own, known to the Alexandrine Church as the Manichean heresy.

It is not surprising therefore that on the Indian side of the Persian monarch's dominions, in a part probably under his influence if not directly under his sway, we should find the fire-altar, or the image of the sun, replaced by KRISHNA among the Hindus, or BUDDHA among the Bauddhists; both of them personating the sun in their respective mythologies.

Whatever forms of the Hindu religion were prevalent at the time, the adoption of the sun as the ostensible representation of divine power, either in accordance with the commands of the ruling prince, or from a natural tendency towards an union of the Brahmanical and Magian faith, could not present many difficulties. We must not be surprised," says Sir WILLIAM JONES, "at finding that the characters of all the pagan deities, male and female, melt into each other, and at last into one or two; for it seems a well-founded opinion, that the whole crowd of gods and goddesses, in ancient Rome and modern Varánes (Benares), mean only the powers of nature, and principally those of the sun, expressed in a variety of ways, and by a multitude of fanciful names‡."

*La fête nommée Celle de la naissance du soleil invincible' (natalis solis invicti) tombait au VIIIe des calendes de Janvier, ou au 25 Décembre. Environ à la même époque, quelques jours après le solstice d'hiver, se célébrait la grande fête des Perses appelée Mirrhagan (Mihira, soleil; gàhan fête) mot qui exprime une idée analogue. L'une et l'autre de ces deux solennités avaient egalement rapport à Mithras. Les chefs de l'église d'occident fixèrent au même jour la célébration de la naissance du Christ, dont l'époque était demeurée inconnue jusques là." Religions de l'antiquité, traduit de l'allemand du D. F. CREUZER, par J. D. GUIGNIAUT.

The assumed name of TEREBINTHUS, (BUDDAS,) has given rise to conjectures of his connection with the Hindu sacred personages of the same name, and the ancient fathers actually ascribed many of the traditions of the Buddhists to this heretic. HYDE, however, shews the origin of their mistake. Buddas in Chaldaic has the same signification as Terebinthus in Greek, and this was the cause of his changing his name. See WILFORD's speculations on the subject, As. Res. ix. 215. As. Res. vol. i. page 267.

The kind of radiated coma which surrounds the head-dress of Vásu DE'VA in our coin (fig. 6, pl. XXV.) may be readily imagined to represent the glory or brilliant effulgence of the sun; it resembles somewhat the glory round the head of Surya, in MOOR's Pantheon, plate LXXXVII. The same ornament appears on the reverse of the two coins from Mánikyála (figs. 10 and 11, pl. XXI.) but the name Vásu DE'VA is wanting in these, and the Sanscrit legend is confined to the obverse, where it evidently marks the name of the young king with the winged helmet.

If the winged headdress be considered then the exclusive mark of SHAPUR II. we may suppose him to have possessed provinces in India, wherein he struck money, with his name and titles in the Nágari character; and where, to avoid offending the prejudices of the people, he omitted the altar of Mithra, and adopted the Hindu divinity which coincided nearest with the object of his own worship.

While we have this evidence of Indo-Sassanian rule in some quarter of the Panjab, another of our coins, though but one, would seem to point out a similar connection with the Bactrian provinces. Among the coins of the Kadphises group sent down by KERAMAT ALI, are two gold ones of very inferior fabrication, thin like the Sassanian coins, and differing in many respects from the class of coins to which they are otherwise allied. One of these is depicted as fig. 10, of plate XXVI. The other is similar, except that the headdress of the prince is surmounted by a pair of wings and globe, as separately shewn in fig. 11. I thought at first that the coin might be spurious, being of gold and so vastly inferior in execution to its fellows, but it will be seen hereafter that its authenticity is well established: it is sufficient in this place to point out the above curious fact; and I therefore now proceed to review the other coins of the Mánikyála* tumulus, with the hope rather of applying the epoch already found from the Sassanian coin, to the history of these, than to draw from the latter any additional light regarding the age of the monument.

Obverse of the coins of Kanerkos.

Beginning then with the two gold coins preserved in the cylinders of the same metal, the first remark which occurs on their inspection is, that Greek characters were still in use in the provinces of Kábul and the Panjab in the fourth century: corrupted to be sure, but still retaining more of their original form than those of the latter Arsacidæ, or of the first Sassanidæ of Persia, a century anterior to them in date.

* The Sanscrit legends on the two Mánikyála coins, have resisted the attempts of all the pandits to whom I could refer; even with the aid of a conjecture that they might refer to SHAPUR II. of Persia, or, though less likely, to KRISHNA.