392 On the Ancient Roman Coins. [Sept, 



of Mr. CsomA, in going over the whole of these bulky volumes in the 

 manner he has done, will entitle him, I have no doubt, to the thanks not 

 only of the Society, but of a considerable number of the learned of 

 Europe, who are at this moment warmly interested in the investigation 

 of Buddhism. He will have a still stronger claim upon their acknow- 

 ledgments, if by the translation of some of the philosophical works, he 

 enables them to appreciate what Buddhism really is. 



Besides the catalogue of the Kah-gyur, Mr. Csoma has made occa- 

 sional translations at my request, for the illustration of particular points. 

 These are also submitted, as an account of the life and death of Sakya, 

 the origin of the Sakya tribe, and some passages from the Sher-chin. 



II. — On the Ancient Roman Coins in the Cabinet of the Asiatic 

 Society. By James Prinsep, Sec. Ph. CL 



(Read, July 4th.) 

 Having been lately engaged in decyphering the inscription of an 

 antique copper coin found at Kanouj, by Mr. E. V. Irwin, C. S. and 

 presented to us by Captain Sanders, Executive Engineer at Cawn- 

 pore, I was led into an examination of the contents of the Society's 

 small cabinet itself, which, although it boasts but a very insignificant 

 collection of Roman coins, and those mostly without any record of the 

 exact localities in which they were found, or of the parties who present- 

 ed them, is entitled to some interest from the circumstance of the 

 Indian origin of all that it contains. It was not until the year 1814, 

 that the Society opened a museum, and publicly invited contributions 

 to it of the natural productions, antiquities, coins, and other curi- 

 ous monuments of the country : it is the less surprising, therefore, 

 that its collection should not hitherto have attained any magnitude or 

 consideration. Most private individuals, who have interested themselves 

 in collecting medals and coins, have carried their spoil to England, 

 where, indeed, they may be mortified in finding them swallowed up 

 and lost among the immense profusion of similar objects in the public and 

 private cabinets of European antiquarians ;-and they may perhaps regret 

 that they did not leave them where, from their rarity, they would have 

 been prized, and, from their presence, have promoted the acquisition of 

 further stores for antiquarian research from the wide continent of India. 

 The greater part of the late Colonel Mackenzie's collection was thus 

 consigned to the museum of the Honorable Company in Leadenhall 

 Street. Doctor Robert Tytler also presented to the same museum a 



