1S37.] to the Buddhist group of ancient coins. 465 



1 of raja Dhana deva,' a name not discoverable in the catalogues, though 



purely Sanscrit. On three more of the same family we find _1_ i rb 



Navasa. On one it seems rather _[_ J (\j Nurasa, both nava and nara 



being known names. On another -j-J_y rb Kunamasa ; and on an- 



_ _i 

 other, probably, 8 lj- lj A Mahdpati, the great lord. 



The bull coins of this last group are connected in type, and style 

 of legend, with the "cock and bull series" — on which we have lately 

 read, Satya mitasa, Saya mitasa, and Bijaya mitasa ; so that we have 

 now a tolerably numerous descending series of coins to be classed to- 

 gether from the circumstance of their symbols, of their genitive ter- 

 mination, and their Pali dialect and character, as a Buddhist series, 

 when we come again to review what has been done within the last few 

 years in the nunismatology of India. 



But the most interesting and striking application of the alphabets 

 to coins is certainly that, which has been already made (in anticipa- 

 tion, as it were, of my discovery) by Professor Lassen, of Bonn, to 

 the very curious Bactrian coins of Agathocles. 



The first announcement of Professor Lassen's reading of this legend 

 was given in the Journal for 1836, page 723. He had adopted it on the 

 analogies of the Tibetan and Pali alphabets, both of which are connec- 

 ted with, or immediately derived from, the more ancient character of 

 the lats. The word read by him, raja, on some specimens seems to be 

 spelled ydja J, £ rather than -J £ Idja, a corruption equally proba- 

 ble, and accordant with the Pali dialect in which the r is frequently 

 changed into y, or omitted altogether. I am, however, inclined to 

 adopt another reading, by supposing the Greek genitive case to have 

 been rendered as literally as possible into the Pali character ; thus 

 HA ©"hiS Agalhuklayej for Aya6oK\em ; this has the advantage 

 of leaving the letters on the other side of the device for the title of raja 

 of which indeed the letter £ is legible. 



I am the rather favorable to this view because on the corresponding 

 coin of Pantaleon, we likewise find both the second vowel of the 

 Greek represented by the Sanscrit semivowel, and the genitive case 

 imitated : — supplying the only letter wanting on Dpt Swiney's coin, 

 the initial p, of which there are traces in Masson's drawing, the word 

 U' A "J i " ( Pantelewantd is by the help of our alphabet clearly made 

 out — the anvswara, which should follow the i being placed in the 

 belly of the letter instead of outside ; and the d being attached to the 

 centre instead of the top of the ( , where for the sake of uniformity 

 I am obliged to place it in type. 



