JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



JVb. 31.— July, 1834. 



I. — On the Coins and Relics discovered by M. le Chevalier Ventura, 

 General in the Service of M aha Rdjd Runjeet Singh, in the Tope of 

 Manikydla. By James Prinsep, F. R. S. Sec. As. Soc. #c. 

 [Read at the meeting of the As. Soc. 20th March, 1834.] 

 General Ventura's well imagined and successfully executed opera- 

 tions for the examination of the Tope of Manikydla, near Kabul, in the 

 year 1830, are familiar to all who are interested in antiquarian re- 

 search. His own account of the excavations was published in the Cal- 

 cutta newspapers of the day, and was afterwards inserted, with remarks, 

 in Professor Wilson's essay on ancient Indian Coins, in the seventeenth 

 volume of the Researches. Some of the coins have been the subject of 

 discussion and investigation at Paris ; and the subsequent collections of 

 Lieut. Burnes, Doctor Martin Honigberger, and especially, Mr. Mas- 

 son, who have all followed in the track pointed out by the success of 

 General Ventura, have materially contributed to demonstrate the value 

 of his original enterprize, and to make us wish for a fuller account of 

 its highly curious results. Lieut. Burnes favored the Society with his 

 own impressions of the importance and magnitude of the Chevalier's la- 

 bours from an ocular inspection of the Tope itself, and of the collection of 

 relics which were shewn to him at Lahore. This is printed in the second 

 volume of the Journal, p. 308 ; and an expression, which I ventured 

 to use, in a note subjoined on that occasion, " trusting that the Che- 

 valier would no longer deem us unworthy of being made the medium 

 of their introduction to the world," was, in fact, a hesitating allusion to 

 the good fortune which a letter from Captain Wade had that moment 

 announced ; but which I could hardly bring myself to believe. A more 

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