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XXIX. Notes on Indian Coins and Seals Part VI.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Extract

The square bronze coins of Eucratides which bear on the reverse the image and superscription of the tutelary divinity of a city, instead of some type accompanied by the usual kingly name and titles, are well known and have often been published. The Kharoṣṭhī inscription has been read hitherto as “Karisiye nagara-devata”; but this is undoubtedly incorrect. Since the publication of Professor Gardner's Catalogue, tlie British Museum has acquired specimens of this coinage, by means of which the reading of every letter of the inscription can be determined with certainty. Of these additions, the best preserved is the coin now described.

Type
Original Communications
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1905

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References

page 783 note 1 Cunningham, , Num. Chron., 1869, pp. 225 (No. 21)Google Scholar, 235, pl. vii (vi), Nos. 5, 6; von Sallet, , Zeit. f. Num., 1879, p. 299Google Scholar, pl. vi (iii), 4; Gardner, B.M. Cat., Greek and Scythic Kings, p. 19 (No. 63), pl. vi, 8.

page 783 note 2 From the specimens published by Professor Gardner, it was impossible to be certain of the reading which he gives on the authority of General Cunningham (loc. cit.).

page 784 note 1 There can be little doubt that this monogram is the one which is intended to be represented on all the coins of this class. The different form given both by Cunningham and Professor Gardner is due to imperfectly preserved specimens.

page 784 note 2 In a paper which will appear in the Transactions of the XIV Oriental Congress (Algiers) I have tried to show that the ā is sometimes represented in the Kharoṣṭḥī alphabet, both in Dr. Stein's inscriptions from Niya and on the coins. I think it extremely probable that it is here indicated by the short stroke at the foot of the last letter, and that the word should be read as devatā.

page 785 note 1 Cunningham, , Num. Chron., 1869, p. 226Google Scholar; Gardner, B.M. Cat., p. xxxv.

page 785 note 2 Gardner, op. cit., pp. xxxv, 19.

page 785 note 3 It is generally supposed (v. Smith, Early History of India, p. 199) that Apollodotus was the son and murderer of Eucratides; but the reasons for this view given by Cunningham (Num. Chron., 1869, pp. 241–3) are not absolutely convincing.

page 785 note 4 v. Chabouillet, , Rev. Num., 1867, p. 393Google Scholar; von Sallet, , Zeit. f. Num., 1879, p. 200Google Scholar; Gardner, B.M. Cat., Gk. and Seythic Kings, p. lv.

page 788 note 1 A similar mistake in the name does not occur on the smaller coin of the same type published by Cunningham (Num. Chron., 1890, p. 152), and now in the B.M.

page 790 note 1 It is scarcely necessary to remind the epigraphist or the numismatist that eye-copies are scientifically worthless, and are useful only in so far as they explain the meaning of a writer, or illustrate his individual view (which is often influenced by preconceived notions) as to the reading of an inscription.

page 791 note 1 Possibly the resemblance which Mr. Vincent Smith saw between these coins and the Saurāṣṭran coins may be explained as due to their common origin.

page 791 note 2 Drouin, , Onomastique Arsacide, Rev. Num., 1895, p. 370Google Scholar; Fleet, JRAS, 1905, p. 228.

page 793 note 1 It occurs, for example, in an inscription of Lucius Cæsar (died A.D. 2) at Athens, Boeckh, CIG. No. 312.

page 793 note 2 ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΝ ΑΡΣΑΚΟΥ ΥΟΣ ΚΕΚΑΛΟΥΜΕΝΟΣ ΑΡΤΑΒΑΝΟΥ ΓΩΤΕΡΖΗΣ, Wroth, B.M. Cat., Parthia, p. 165, pl. xxvii, 2, and Num. Chron., 1900, p. 95 ; cf. Gardner, The Parthian Coinage, p. 49, pl. v, 25.

page 793 note 3 For the readings of these v. Drouin, Onomastique Arsacide, in Rev. Num., 1895, pp. 367, 368.

page 793 note 4 On referring to the volume containing the Pandit's manuscript notes now in the Royal Asiatic Society's Library, I found that he had already suggested this reading. This volume of notes, from which I could only give selections in the two articles edited by me in JRAS, 1890, p. 639, and 1894, p. 541, should be consulted by scholars interested in the history of ancient India.

page 794 note 1 JRAS, 1894, p. 532.

page 795 note 1 JRAS, 1894, p. 546.

page 795 note 2 Bühler is certainly right in declining to accept further identifications proposed by Cunningham and Bhagvānlāl, v. Indian Coins, § 79.

page 796 note 1 JRAS, 1905, p. 229.

page 797 note 1 ZDMG, 1903, p. 622.

page 797 note 2 Antiquarian Remains at Sopārā and Padaṇa, JBBRAS, xv, p. 273.Google Scholar

page 798 note 1 Op. cit., p. 313.

page 798 note 2 For instance, by Bühler, Indian Antiquary, 1883, p. 272.

page 798 note 3 ASSI, i, p. 110, Raño Māḍhariputasa Ikhākhuṇaṃ Siri-Vīra-Purisadatasa.

page 798 note 4 ASWI, iv, p. 107, pl. liv; cf. JRAS, 1903, pp. 299, 300.

page 799 note 1 These Roman numerals refer to the clock-face, and indicate the point in the circle at which an inscription begins.

page 799 note 2 I use this sign—a reversed virāma—to denote that a vowel sign cannot be seen, although it may possibly have been intended.

page 799 note 3 The inscription should, however, properly begin with Raño. This is the order which is, no doubt, intended. The above order has been adopted because of the break in the legend made by the truncation of the bust.

page 800 note 1 Indian Coins, § 50.

page 800 note 2 Ep. Ind., ii, p. 324.

page 800 note 3 Nanaghat Inscription, in ASWI, v, p. 64, note 7.

page 801 note 1 Cf. Wickremasinghe, Epigraphia Zeylanica, part i, p. 13.

page 803 note 1 The Pandit himself gives a facsimile (l.c.) which may equally be referred to in illustration of these remarks.

page 804 note 1 (1) Mahārāj-Endradatta-putra Parama-Vaiṣṇava Śri-Mahārāja-Dahrasena; and (2) Mahārāj-Endradatta-putra Parama-Vaiṣṇava Mahārāja-Śrī-Dahrasena.

page 805 note 1 Trans. VII Or. Cong.: Aryan Section, p. 220.

page 805 note 2 JRAS, 1905, p. 566.

page 805 note 3 Bomb. Gaz., I, i, p. 58.

page 805 note 4 Inscr. of Uṣavadãta, Nasik, ASWI, iv, p. 99, pi. lii, 5.

page 806 note 1 Inscr. of Pulumāyi, Nasik, ibid., p. 108, pi. lii, 14,

page 806 note 2 Junāgaḍh inscr. of Rudradāman, Kielhorn, Ep. Ind., viii, p. 36.Google Scholar

page 808 note 1 The correct name of this symbol is known from the inscription on the Padana Hill, JBBRAS, xv, p. 320.

page 808 note 2 Topographical List of the Bṛhat Saṃhitᾱ, Ind. Ant., 1893, p. 188.

page 809 note 1 JRAS, 1899, p. 359.

page 810 note 1 Gardner, B.M. Cat.: Greek and Scythic Kings, p. 29. The form Lisiasa is noted as occurring on Nos. 7 and 14. An examination of the coins and a comparison with other specimens in silver and copper acquired by the Museum since the publication of the catalogue convince me that the same reading is to be restored on Nos. 4 and 8, and indeed that it is the regular reading of all coins of Lysias which bear the same monogram.

page 810 note 2 Vogel, , Ep. Ind., vii, p. 116.Google Scholar

page 810 note 3 Cunningham, CAI, p. 66.

page 810 note 4 Ibid.

page 810 note 5 Ibid., p. 70, pl. iv, 14 (the reading corrected in JRAS, 1900, p. 429).

page 811 note 1 Reinach, Traité d' Épigraphie grecque, p. 207.

page 811 note 2 I have recently shown in a paper read before the Oriental Congress at Algiers, which will be published in due course in the Transactions of the Congress, that the initial consonant in this name is a form of v which I propose, for the present, to represent as v' (cf. B.M. Cat., pl. xxv,. 6, and Professor Gardner's note on p. 124).

page 811 note 3 JRAS, 1903, p. 285.

page 811 note 4 For the statements here made as to the inscriptions on coins, cf. the plates in B.M. Cat.

page 812 note 1 B.M. Cat., Gk. and Scythie Kings, Introd., p. xlvi.