294 Specimens of Indo- Sassanian Coins, [Apbil» 



suited to the circumstances of India, where we have long had irre- 

 fragable proof of the alternate predominance of the Buddhist and 

 Brahmanical faith among people using the same language ; and now 

 we are obtaining equally strong testimony of the engrafting of the 

 fire- worship upon the same local stock. The extensive spread of this 

 worship in the north-west is supported by the traditionary origin of 

 the Agnicula or fire-worshipping races, whence were derived some of 

 the principal families of the Rajputs. — Indeed, some have imagined 

 the whole of the Surya-vansis, or sun-descended, to have been of 

 Mithraic origin, and the Indu-vansis to have been essentially Bud- 

 dhists*. Numismatology will gradually throw light upon all these 

 speculations, but at present all we can attempt to elucidate is the 

 important fact of another large series of Hindu coins, (namely, that 

 bearing the legend sft W^Tf^^Tjf Srimad ddi vardha,) having directly 

 emanated from a Sassanian source. I say another, because the Saurash- 

 tra coins, and the Chanka-ddkas their descendants, have been already 

 proved to possess the Sassanian fire-altar for their reverse. The sects 

 of the Surya-panthis, and the Mors who are known as fire- worshippers 

 at Benares, have not perhaps received the attention they merit from 

 the antiquarian ; — but even now the solar worship has a predomi- 

 nance in the Hindu pantheon of most of the Mdrwdr principalities. 

 Colonel Tod thus describes the observances sacred to this luminary 

 at Udayapur (the city of the rising sun) ; — " The sun has here univer- 

 sal precedence; his portal (Surya-pol) is the chief entrance to the city; 

 his name gives dignity to the chief apartment or hall (Surya-mahal) of 

 the palace ; and from the balcony of the sun {Surya-gokra) the 

 descendant of Rama shews himself in the dark monsoon as the sun's 

 representative. A huge painted sun of gypsum in high relief with 

 gilded rays, adorns the hall of audience, and in front of it is the throne. 

 As already mentioned, the sacred standard bears his image, as does 

 that Scythic part of the regalia called the changi, a disc of black felt 

 or ostrich feathers, with a plate of gold to represent the sun in its 

 centre, borne upon a pole. The royal parasol is termed kirnia, in 

 allusion to its shape like a ray (carna\) of the orb." Many other 

 quotations from the same author might be adduced in proof of the 

 strong Mithraic tinge of Hinduism in modern Rdjputdna : and, in fact, 

 the Muhammadan historians tell us that the fire-worship in Gujerat 

 was only finally uprooted in the time of Ala-u'din's incursions into 

 the Dekhan. 



* Annals of Rajasthan, I. 63. See also preceding remarks. 



f Can this have any connection with the title korano of our coins ? 



