230 Hindu Coins from the ruins of Kanouj. [Mat, 



present plate, drawings of some most interesting coins, procured by- 

 Lieut. A. Conolly, of the 6th Light Cavalry, at Kanouj, and this mo- 

 ment received from that officer at Cawnpore. 



Figs. 19 and 21. Silver coins, weighing 28 grains each (| drachm), 

 corresponding in every respect with Col. Tod's fifth series, in the head, 

 on the obverse, and in the circular inscription on the reverse : in 19, also, 

 we find the central symbol <& with five dots on the side, as in his coin. 

 Col. Tod's observations on these rare coins are as follows : 

 " The fifth series is entirely novel and unexplored. All lean say of them is 

 that they belong to a dynasty which ruled from Avanti or Ujjayan to the Indus, 

 for in that whole tract I have found them. The first I obtained was from the 

 ruins of ancient Ujjayan, twelve years ago,presentedto me by Mr. Williams, resi- 

 dent at the Gykwar court, who first awakened my attention to their importance. 

 He found them in Cutch, and in his company, I discovered others among the ruins 

 in the Gulph. The character of the epigraphe I have met with on rocks in Saurash- 

 tra, in the haunts of the Suroi, the bounds of the conquests of Menander and 

 Apollodotus. I have little hesitation in assigning them to the Balhara sovereigns 

 of Renandot's Arabian travellers, the Bhalla Raes of Anhulwdra Patau, who were 

 supreme in those countries : " This Balhara is the most illustrious prince of the 

 Indies, and all the other kings acknowledge his pre-eminence. He has, of these, 

 pieces of silver called Tartarian drams. They are coined with the die of the 

 prince, and have the year of his reign." — Renandot, page 15. " The Balhara 

 dynasty had a distinct era, 375 years posterior to Vicramaditya." 



The character of the circular legend in all these coins strongly resem- 

 bles Sanscrit : — if the place of their discovery be a test of the extent of 

 empire in which they circulated, they will belong to a powerful monarch 

 indeed, for Mr. MASsoNhas found twenty at Beghram, (of the same sym- 

 bolat least,) while they extend to Kanouj, Behat, and Benares on the east. 

 Fig. 20. A silver coin, weighing 34 grains ; is evidently of the same 

 series ; but here the distinctive symbol is lost, and is replaced by a 

 peacock with expanded tail : the letters are not decypherable. 

 Fig. 22. A square copper coin, also from Kanouj, is already known as 

 No. 68 of Wilson's plate, (see As Res. vol. xvii.) which was dug up 

 by Capt. Vetch on the Allahabad road. It bears on the obverse an 

 elephant and some other animal prostrate ; on the reverse, the <& 

 symbol, the tree, and a cross, all of which prove its close alliance with 

 the Behat coins. More of the general history of the whole series 

 may yet be developed by future discovery. 

 Fig. 23. A silver coin, weighing 7.7 grains, resembles a fanam of 

 South India, but its type shews that it may be a genuine connection 

 of the coins it accompanies. 

 Fig. 24. A gold medal weighing 123 grains. Obverse, — a figure clothed 

 in the Hindu dhoti, with armlets, holding a bow, as having just dis- 

 charged an arrow through the head of a lion, or other monster, on 

 the right ; in his left he holds another arrow prepared ; his right foot 



