^{page 177 note 1} These plates mostly illustrate only the reverses of the coins; the reverses presenting the features which have been found so exceptionally interesting. The obverses remain to be fully illustrated: they deserve it from many points of view; and it is particularly necessary that they should be so treated, because it is amongst coins at present attributed to Kanishka or Huvishka that we may hope to find coins of Vāsashka, Vāsushka, or Vāsishka, regarding whom see this Journal, 1903. 325; 1905. 357. My surmise is that, in some case or cases in which part of the proper name does not lie on the coin, an initial uncial or cursive B has been misread as K: for b = v on the coins of this group, note the words = Vāsudēva, and = Viśākha.

I must explain that, from want of the necessary types, it is still not yet practicable to shew the words cited just above, and others, in cursive forms.

^{page 178 note 1} Adapted, with additions, from the Babylonian and Oriental Record, 1. 155 ff.Google Scholar

^{page 178 note 2} See Rapson, , this Journal, 1897. 324.Google Scholar

^{page 178 note 3} Kumāra, Skanda-(Kumāra), and Mahāsēna are names of Kārttikēya, the god of war. Viśākha is a name of Skanda; also of a son of Skanda, or of a manifestation of Skanda regarded as his son. Patañjali mentions Skanda and Viśākha as separate gods, with Śiva, in his comments on Pāṇini, 5. 3, 99,— the well-known ‘Maurya passage’, and again, without Śiva, under 8. 1, 15. The Kāśikā mentions them as separate gods under 7. 3, 21, and in the Gaṇa dadhipayasĪ under 2. 4, 14.Google Scholar

Some of the coins present a single figure, with the name Mahāsēna: for various references for these, see this Journal, 1907. 1047, and note 2. Others present two figures, with the names Skanda-Kumāra and Viśākha: Gardner, plate 28, figs. 22, 23; Cunningham, plate 20/10, fig. 16. Another presents three figures, with the names Skanda-Kumāra, Mahāsēna, and Viśākha: Gardner, plate 28, fig. 24; Cunningham, plate 20/10, fig. 17. From the last we must apparently assume that there were held in view two, if not three, separate manifestations of Kārttikēya.

It seems rather strange that no coin has as yet been brought to notice mentioning Vardhamāna, Vēra, or Mahāvēra, to whom, as we know from inscriptions, quite as much worship was paid as to Buddha in the time of Kanishka and his successors.

^{page 179 note 1} For this coin, see Gardner, plate 28, fig. 20; Cunningham, plate 22/12, fig. 11. The name has been read by Thomas as Riaē, or doubtfully Rirē or Ridē (this Journal, 1877. 213, No. 4), with the suggestion (loc. cit., 225) that ‘Rhea (Pallas Capitolina)’ might be intended; by Gardner as Riom or Rom, with the suggestion that we may have here an impersonation of the city Rome; by Cunningham as Ridē, with a proposal to take it as denoting the Sanskṛit Ṛiddhi, good fortune, wealth, abundance, etc., personified as the wife of Kuvēra. Stein, accepting doubtfully Riom, considered that the type is Zoroastrian.

The word consists of four letters: and I really do not think that there could in any case be an allusion to Rome. The last letter seems to me a variety of the form of upsilon which we have on others of these coins (for two instances, see this Journal, 1907. 1045, and note). The preceding letter seems to be a variant of the cursive beta, for which see Thompson's table mentioned in note 1 on page 185 below, col. 2, the last form but one. Apart from other considerations, the female figure precludes any suggestion in the direction of the Sanskṛit Ṛibhu.

^{page 179 note 2} For this coin, see Gardner, plate 28, fig. 32; Cunningham, plate 23/13, fig. 10. The name has been read by Thomas as ōroē or ōron, with the suggestion that the Indian Varuṇa is intended (loc. cit., preceding note, 213, No. 5, 225); by Gardner as ōron or doubtfully ōroe, with the remark:—“I am disposed to identify this figure with the Greek Uranus, though he may almost as well stand for the Indian Varuna;” by Cunningham as ōron or HŌron, with an endorsement of the view that Varuna may be intended. Here, again, Stein considered that we have a Zoroastrian type.

There is no question about the first three letters. The fourth might, as a capital, be either eta or mu: it may be taken as a cursive nu with the left limb unduly extended upwards. With Serāpis actually before us, it seems to me highly probable that HŌru, HŌros, may be intended here.

^{page 180 1} The character . is apparently carried back, by attribution, to the period B.C. 138–128: see Wroth's Catalogue of the Coins of Parthia, p. 17, Nos. 12 to 14: but it may be questioned whether a sigma is intended there; especially in No. 14, where we have both . and ., in .

It appears, for sigma, on coins attributed to the period B.C. 88–77; op. cit., p. 39, Nos. 11, 13 (here the letter is reversed, and may be a careless ; p. 40, Nos. 23, 24. And it appears again, for sigma, on a coin attributed to B.C. 70–57, but in a name which is a countermark and may therefore be of later date: op. cit., p. 50, No. 47.

With omission of cases on pp. 25, 42, 48, which I learn from Mr. Wroth are misprints, and of doubtful cases on pp. 18, 25, the appears on a coin attributed to B.C. 88–77: op. cit., p. 40, No. 23. And it is read on a coin dated in B.C. 38–37: op. cit., p. 99, No. 1. In this case, however, the letter is very small and cramped: and I venture to think that it may equally well be taken as E.

The appears on coins attributed to the period B.C. 57–54: op. cit., p. 63, No. 16; p. 64, Nos. 27, 28.

The three forms, all together, appear first on the drachms of Vonōnēs I. in the period A.D. 8–12: op. cit., p. 144 f.

They do not seem, however, to have caught the fancy of the Parthian minters even then; for they are found again, all together, only on drachms of Gōtarzēs, in the period A.D. 40–51: op. cit., p. 165, No. 33.

^{page 181 note 1} They seem to have been found in or near India, otherwise than on coins, only on the seal of Balia, son of Mitraśama, described and illustrated by Rapson in this Journal, 1905. 809, and fairly referable, as indicated by him, to the time of Huvishka or of Vāsudēva. But, are the characters of that legend really cursives, or are they uncials?: the sigma seems uncial rather than cursive.

^{page 182 note 1} It may be convenient to quote here, as instances of the medial use of the original Greek aspirate H in its full form, the words = , and = , from inscriptions from Taenaros: see Roberts, , Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, part 1. 266, 267.Google Scholar

An instance of the abbreviated form prefixed to an alpha is found in in an inscription from Dodona: see ibid., 275. For its occurrence with eta, see page 59 above.

^{page 182 note 2} With an exception in the case of Hēraklēs:. see page 184 below.

^{page 183 note 1} The possible exceptional case of a Kharōshṭhī legend on the coins of this group is found in a coin exhibited by Cunningham in his Coins of the Kushāns, plate 18, fig. 15, from a sketch made in 1842: unfortunately, the coin itself was subsequently lost. He presented the reading: Jayatasa……Hashtrashkaśa (op. cit., 44, No. 58), with the observation:— “In 1842 I read the name as Hystaspes, tentatively. But, with a very slight correction, it reads quite clearly Huvishka.” And certainly, if we take two liberties, by supplying an u in the first syllable and shifting the position of the stroke across the upright limb of the second character so as to place it across the top stroke, we can obtain the reading Huvishkaśa. But we must not lose sight of the possibility that we may have here another in this group of names ending in shka,—Hastrashka.

^{page 183 note 2} The intended, construction is, of course, open to argument. But it seems likely, on the whole, that the nominative was contemplated, if we may judge by the way in which the names of the gods were treated. This detail, also, seems to call for consideration, and might possibly be instructive. Roberts has told us, in his Introduction to Greek Epigraphy, part 1. 276, that “the names of deities are rarely found under statues in the nominative case.”

^{page 185 note 1} See Thompson, , Greek and Latin Palaeography table at p. 148. It may be noted that there is a lacuna between B.C. 110 and the first century A.D.; just the period to which our coins belong.Google Scholar

^{page 185 note 2} See Taylor, , The Alphabet 2. 105 f., 148, note;Google Scholar Reinach, , Traiteé d'Égigraphie Grecque, 207 fGoogle Scholar

^{page 185 note 3} See Kenyon, , Palaeography of Greek Papyri 30, 75.Google Scholar