1834.] discovered at Begliram in Kabul. 159 



characters of the legend, and for being generally plated over with silver. 

 They are found generally, I believe exclusively, in the neighbourhood 

 of Jelalabad. 



Class, I ado-Scythic— Series No. 1. Coins of KANHPK02, &c. 

 The coins of kanhpkos exhibit two varieties as to the reverse. The 

 one representing a figure standing to the right, with the legend in 

 Greek characters nanaia, the other a figure standing to the left, with 

 the legend HAIOC This species of coin has been supposed by the 

 Editor of the Journal of the Asiatic Society in Bengal, to belong to 

 Kanishka, a Tartar conqueror of Bactria. It is gratifying to be able 

 to conjecture somewhat plausibly, that the capital of the prince whose 

 coins are now the subject of our discussions, was at Kabul, a fact 

 which may confirm or destroy the opinion of his having been Kanishka. 

 M. Csoma de Koros, from Tibetan authorities, informs us, that a 

 prince Kanishka reigned at Kapila, supposed to have been near Hurd- 

 war : and Mr. Wilson endeavors to fix the birth-place of Sakya at 

 Kapila, which he places in Oude. If the locality of Kapila rest on 

 supposition only, and we be allowed the latitude of reading Kabila, and 

 we find from Mr. Wilson's notice that the name is actually so written in 

 one dialect and Kimboul in another, we have a great approximation to 

 Kabul or Kabool — the question will be nearly set at rest, and Kanishka 

 may have been the prince here designated KanhpkoS. But if Kapila 

 cannot be allowed to represent Kabul, then we may doubt whether 

 these coins refer to Kanishka. But certain will it be that they belong 

 to a prince whose metropolis was Kabul. As I find very plausible rea- 

 sons are advanced for bringing the epoch of Kanishka to agree with 

 that of the overthrow of the Bactrian monarchy, and consequently for 

 inferring, that, that event was effected by him, the remark forces itself 

 from me that Bactria was conquered from the north by the Getee, and 

 not from the east or north-east by the Sacse. That the Getse and Sacae 

 were distinct Scythian nations, was too well known to the ancients, 

 to allow their historians and geographers to confound them : we find 

 even the Latin poet Horace aware of the distinction. I doubt whether 

 the Get« at the period of their inroad upon Bactria made any settle- 

 ment, assuredly not a permanent one, in the countries now called Af- 

 ghanistan ; nor do I feel certain, that, the Greeks did not rally and 

 recover their authority in Bactria. A better acquaintance with the 

 country will enable us to judge more decisively on these points. The 

 barbarians appear to have proceeded southerly, and to have settled 

 themselves, in Kuchee, Sind, and the Punjab, where they probably ab- 

 sorbed the Greek kingdom on the Hyphasis. In the countries named, 

 their descendants still form the great mass of the population, and pre- 



