1834.] Hindu Coins from the ruins of Kanouj. 231 



rests on the tail of the lion. Inscription, in ancient Nagari TORTO 

 fv^T^T^l Maharajadhiraja Sri. inverse— either the same person or a 

 female figure clad in similar costume, seated upon the vanquished lion, 

 holding a large flower in the manner of a cornucopia in the left hand, 

 (see also figs. 1, 4,) and in the right, a kind of noose ; above which the 

 lozenge symbol with four prongs ( 1 6 of plate xiv. vol. ii.) On the 

 right in ancient Nagari, the words ^HI^T 3r#r Sri madghavakacho. 

 It will be at once seen that this beautiful medal has no connection 

 with the subjects of the foregoing remarks. I have given it a place 

 that it might be as early as possible brought to the knowledge of numis- 

 matologists, for it appears likely to prove the very key to our know- 

 ledge of the valuable series of Kanouj coins, forming the fourth of Col. 

 Tod ; and the second Plate of Wilson. 

 The former author says of these coins : 



41 They are Hindu, of a very remote period, and have the same character which 

 I have found wherever the Pandu authority existed, in the caves, and on the 

 rocks of Janagurr Girna, on the pillar of victory in Meywar, and on the columns 

 of Indrapresiha (Delhi) and Praydg (Allahabad). Some of them are not unlike 

 ancient Pehlevi. These coins are of gold, and in fine preservation. L\ke all 

 my medals, they are either from Agra, Mathura, Ujjayan, or Ajmere. Dr. Wit- 

 kins possesses some found even in Bengal : he thinks he can make out the word 

 Chandra upon them." 



It is well known, as Lieut. Conolly remarks, " that our love 

 for the antique has induced certain cunning men of this famed 

 city to set up a mint for the fabrication of moneys of the olden time," 

 and many that are brought thence bear all the marks of having 

 been cast in the mould of some original, of which they bear so imper- 

 fect an impression that it has been hitherto impossible to assign the true 

 nature of their inscriptions : Col. Tod, it is evident, supposed them to be 

 in the Delhi character No. 1 ; — one was read as in the Mahabalipur alpha- 

 bet (see vol. ii. page 412, 649) : and only now do we perceive for certain 

 that the character is precisely that of No. 2, of the Allahabad column : 

 of which the reader may convince himself by comparing the legend on 

 the obverse with the titles of Chandragupta in Plate VI. of the present 

 volume. Applying the same alphabet to the reverse, we find the name Sri 

 mad-ghava kavo or kacho which the Rev. Dr. Mill remarks, by a slight 

 alteration will become Ghatat-kacho, the very name read by himself as 

 the father of Chandragupta in the Allahabad inscription*. I must here 

 leave this important discovery to the elucidation of our learned Vice- 

 President, having performed my own more humble duty of making 

 known by the pencil the prize which has rewarded my friend Lieut. 

 Conollt's researches. 



* In a paper read before the Asiatic Society on the 28th instant. 



