102 R. Mitra — On a Coin of Toramdna. [Dec. 



to the Purdnas, is the vehicle of Kumara alias Kartika, the god of war ; and 

 the Gupta prince, having the saroe name, adopted the vehicle of his name-sake 

 for his sj^mbol. No attempt, however, was made to change the character of 

 the head so as to make it in any way accord with the likeness of the person on 

 whose coin it was struck. The likeness is the same on the coins of nineteen 

 different kings of the Shah dynasty of Guzerat, as also on the mintage of Ku- 

 mara Gupta, and on the specimen under notice. Even the horned helmet, 

 first borrowed from the Indo-Bactrians, remains unchanged, though it is not 

 at all likely that Kumara Gupta ever bore such a head-dress. In so far the type 

 remains the same for, as far as we are at present informed, 22 or 23 reigns ; 

 but the artistic excellence of the design deteriorated markedly in course of 

 time. The earliest Shah coins are remarkable for the high relief of the 

 head ; the eye so formed as to show the swelling of the eye-ball ; the lips 

 pouting ; and the locks of hair behind the head shown in profusion. In the 

 specimen under notice, the relief is low ; the eye, a full one, formed of two 

 curving lines on a profile face, as was usually the case in Egyptian sculp- 

 ture ; the lips indicated by two dots ; and the locks attenuated to two or 

 three wavy lines. In front of the head there is a monogram, but it is par- 

 tially obliterated, and its character cannot be fully made out. In the Shah 

 coins the monogram contains the date. In the earlier Shah coins a Greek 

 inscription is also met with, but it does not occur in the specimen under 

 notice. 



On the reverse the change is complete ; the whole of the Shah 

 symbols being replaced by the peacock. The inscription round the peacock 

 is in the Gupta character, and, on the whole, clear and well preserved. 

 Owing, however, to the habit of the Gupta artists sadly neglecting the 

 vowel-marks and the rules of grammar, it is difficult to determine with pre- 

 cision the meaning of the record. The letters as read by Dr. Mitra are :— 



The first compound letter is unmistakeable ; it is the well known S'rij 

 the auspicious symbol invariably used before proper names in Indian writ- 

 ings. As far as reading is concerned the next four are clear enough ; 

 the Dr. reads them Nayasena or "he who has justice for his army ;" but 

 he could not positively assert whether they are the components of a proper 

 name, or those of an epithet. Coming after S'ri they seem to indicate a 

 proper name, while their meaning suggests the idea of an epithet. The 

 key to the solution of the question lies in the next letter ; but it is extreme- 

 ly doubtful. Its counterpart has been met with in some Indo-Sassanian 

 coins, (Thomas' ' Prinsep,' plate XLI), and there it is equivalent to ^ (de) ; 

 but by reading it ^ here no meaning can be extracted from it. The mark 

 for e is a spur on top, as seen very indistinctly on the letter s in Sena j but 



