1890.] Dr. Waddell — ' ManiJ:-tham ' monuUth in the Puraniya district. 245 



failed to get any local history or tradition concei'ning the stone. No\v-a- 

 days, the villagers assert that this was this scene of the Maluibharata 

 episode of the Sivaic Hiranya Kans'* attempted slaughter of his sou 

 Prahladha for devotion to the worship of Vishnu. King Hiranya Kans, 

 it is alleged, lived in the adjoining fortress of Sikligarh and sent out his 

 son to be bound to this pillar and put to death here, when on the appeal 

 of Prahladha to his deity, the latter in the form of Nara Sinha appeared 

 incarnate in the lion-ligui'e surmounting the capital and saved his 

 devotee. 



In this legendary tradition it is remarkable that the pillar is 

 associated both with a human sacrifice, and the presence of a surmount- 

 ing lion : the former possibly suggestive of its being a sati pillar, while 

 the latter indicates rather an edict (Asoka ?) pillar. Perhaps it may be 

 the upper part of an edict pillar which has been utilized for sati pur- 

 poses. The stone had originally been carefully fashioned, while the 

 rudely chipped depression is evidently of more recent date. The coin 

 too witli its Sivaic emblem on the reverse might imply the creed of the 

 person who erected the stone in this locality, thus coinciding with the 

 popular tradition. It is also curious to find that the river which flows 

 past the further side of the fort is named the Hiranya nadi, thus lending 

 local colour to the applicability of the Mahabharata legend. 



The coin is described on page 209 of Von Sallet, Die Nachfolger 

 Alexanders des grossen. 



It is a coin of Vasudeva or Bazodeo (2nd century A. D.), 

 Obverse. King standing to left hand, with a nimbus round his 

 head ; he wears a peaked cap ; a sword by his side ; a trident in his 

 left hand ; the right hangs over an altar, above which is a trident. 



Legend. PAO NANO RAO BAZOz^HO KOPANO (or more correctly 

 KOPNO as the A seems to be omitted), which probably means — " The 

 king of kings Vasudeva the king." But some suppose the last word not 

 to be the Greek Koipdvov, but the name of a tribe. 



Reverse. OKPO (the Sanskrit Ugra) or S'iva with a humped bull be- 

 hind him, with only one head. (On some coins of this king he has thi-ee 

 heads.) He holds in his left hand a trident, in his right a garland, or 

 perhaps a fillet, or a noose. 



See also Percy Gardner's Coins of Greek and Scythic kings, p. 160. 



* The name is so pronounced locally, not ' Hiranya Kashipu {f^VSS^WS 

 as is nsual. A raja Kans is identified with several places in this and the adjoining 

 district of Dinajpnr. Raja ' Kanis ' according to Stewart's History of Bengal, p. 94, 

 was a Hindu king of Bengal from 1385 to 1393 A. D. This may be the same as the 

 raja ' Qanss ' mentioned by Dr, Buchanan. 



