1834.] and of other coins of the Behat type. 435 



up at Tripura in 1803, and decyphered by Mr. Colebrooke, (As. Res. 

 x. 403,) we find the expression : — 



" From him sprung the happy chief of ministers, who exhibits the joys of 

 unsullied glory: a spotless moon, among mortals, at sight of whom the hare 

 spotted luminary appears swoln with envy and distempered with alternate in- 

 crease and wane." 



I will here close this unsatisfactory tissue of conjectures, regretting 

 that the time is not yet ripe for doing justice to Lieut. Conolly's se- 

 cond boon towards the solution of a faintly dawning point in the per- 

 vading obscurity of Indian history. 



J. P. 



After engraving the figures of the three coins just described, Dr. Swine y 

 arrived in Calcutta with his rich cabinet of ancient coins. In it I dis- 

 covered several connected with the same groupe, which he was kind 

 enough to place in my hands. I had however reserved only room for one 

 or two, (figures 4 and 5,) and have been obliged to content myself with 

 the legends of the others (b, c, d and e,) to show the resemblance of 

 the character to the Kanouj Nagari alphabet. I cannot describe these 

 coins better than in Dr. Swiney's own words. 



" Several of them are rare, particularly the two larger with the 

 antelope goat on one side and the warrior on the other ; smaller 

 ones of this description are not uncommon in the neighbourhood of 

 Seharanpur. I mean in the smaller towns, and certainly not all brought 

 from the newly discovered deposit at Behat. The first of the kind that 

 I met with was stated to be brought from Hardwdr; and there was 

 so marked a character of the hill goat upon it, that it was natural to 

 connect it with some long forgotten dynasty in the Sewalic range. 

 There is an account to be met with somewhere, of a certain Raja of 

 Kemaon, by name Sakwanta, whose domain was invaded by a cer- 

 tain Rajpa'l of Indraprestha. It seems that in this case the aggressor was 

 defeated, and Sakwanta obtained and kept possession of the regal 

 abode for fourteen years. 



But perhaps mythology is a better key to the true interpretation of 

 old coins. Here we have a series of coins more or less connected one 

 with another by some common symbol of a Jain type : on one coin the 

 horse, on another the antelope or goat, on another the hieroglyphic 

 called Swastika, on another the sankh, or sacred shell ; the character of 

 the reverse or obverse bearing some common j antra, sufficient to indi- 

 cate the series. 



Then we possess Colonel Tod's testimony to the existence of such 

 a series ; for he says, he has in his possession a full series of Jain coins. 

 I do confess however, that my belief in these coins being Jain was 

 2 k 2 



