1834.") the Coins and Relics of the Mdnikydla Tope. 441 



The kind of radiated coma which surrounds the head-dress of Vasu 

 de'va in our coin (fig. 6, pi. XXV.) may be readily imagined to represent 

 the glory or brilliant effulgence of the sun ; it resembles somewhat the 

 glory round the head of Surya, in Moor's Pantheon, plate LXXXVII. 

 The same ornament appears on the reverse of the two coins from Manik- 

 vala (figs. 10 and 11, pi. XXI.) but the name Vasu de'va is wanting in 

 these, and the Sanscrit legend is confined to the obverse, where it 

 evidently marks the name of the young king with the winged helmet. 



If the winged headdress be considered then the exclusive mark of 

 Shapor II. we may suppose him to have possessed provinces in India, 

 wherein he struck money, with his name and titles in the Nagari charac- 

 ter ; and where, to avoid offending the prejudices of the people, he omitted 

 the altar of Mithra, and adopted the Hindu divinity which coincided 

 nearest with the object of his own worship. 



While we have this evidence of Indo-Sassanian rule in some quarter 

 of the Panjab, another of our coins, though but one, would seem to 

 point out a similar connection with the Bactrian provinces. Among 

 the coins of the Kadphises group sent down by Keramat Ali, are two 

 gold ones of very inferior fabrication, thin like the Sassanian coins, and 

 differing in many respects from the class of coins to which they are 

 otherwise allied. One of these is depicted as fig. 10, of plate XXVI. 

 The other is similar, except that the headdress of the prince is sur- 

 mounted by a pair of wings and globe, as separately shewn in fig. 11. 

 I thought at first that the coin might be spurious, being of gold and so 

 vastly inferior in execution to its fellows, but it will be seen hereafter 

 that its authenticity is well established : it is sufficient in this place to 

 point out the above curious fact ; and I therefore now proceed to 

 review the other coins of the Manikyala* tumulus, with the hope rather 

 of applying the epoch already found from the Sassanian coin, to the 

 history of these, than to draw from the latter any additional light re- 

 garding the age of the monument. 



Obverse of the coins of Kanerkos. 

 Beginning then with the two gold coins preserved in the cylinders 

 of the same metal, the first remark which occurs on their inspection 

 is, that Greek characters were still in use in the provinces of Kabul and 

 the Panjab in the fourth century : corrupted to be sure, but still retaining 

 more of their original form than those of the latter Arsacidae, or of the 

 first Sassanidae of Persia, a century anterior to them in date. 



* The Sanscrit legends on the two Maniky£la coins, have resisted the attempts 

 of all the pandits to whom I could refer ; even with the aid of a conjecture that 

 they might refer to Shapur II. of Persia, or, though less likely, to Krishna. 



2 L 



