1836.] Third Memoir of the Ancient Coins. 541 



this novel language, and to assist in the attainment of an object, from 

 which so much advantage is likely to be obtained, we have, following 

 that gentleman's plan, given the names, titles and epithets of the 

 Bactrian kings, &c. as we find them on coins before us. This might 

 have been more satifactorily done, had we, for the purpose, taken full 

 advantage of all the coins which have passed through our hands : but 

 as they have been transferred only to receive superior attention, the 

 matter occasions no regret, and is noticed to excuse individual neg- 

 lect in this instance and in another, viz., the passing slightly the 

 characters on our Sassanian coins, which, while they exhibit some 

 varieties, appear singular and different from the ordinary forms of 

 Pehlevi. 



The coins of Agathocles and Pantaleon have native legends in an- 

 other peculiar character, essentially distinct from that found on the 

 coins of the other Bactrian princes, and both of them on every account 

 must stand high in the royal lists of these countries. The character, 

 Mr. Prinsep suggests, is that of the inscriptions found on the columns 

 of Delhi and of other places in India, — a character also that of the 

 coins of the early Canouje princes, and singular it is that a connection 

 may be traced between these coins and those of Agathocles and 

 Pantaleon. 



About the period, or a little anterior thereto, of the Mahommedan 

 invasion, we find the first traces of Nagari, but on coins which we 

 are not positive were current at Beghrdm. The Caliphs introduced 

 KufiCy shewn by their coins, and on the inscriptions of the columns at 

 Ghazni, the seat of their government. To them succeeded in autho- 

 rity the Brahminical sovereigns, as we suppose, whose coins have 

 again Nagari legends, and these were expelled by the Mahommedan 

 princes of Ghazni, when modern Persian became the general and 

 written language of the country, as it remains to this day. 



It may be proper to note, how tenaciously the Greek language was 

 preserved on the coins of this country, up to a period within a century 

 or two of the Mahommedan era, and employed by the whole series of 

 Indo-Scythic kings excepting Kadphises, to the exclusion of the native 

 dialect. While there is sufficient testimony that the Greek language 

 was studied and well known by the fashionable and higher orders in 

 India during the first and second histories of the Christian era, the 

 latter coins of the Indo-Scythic princes seem to testify, by the very 

 corrupted characters they bear, that at the period of their coinage 

 the knowledge of it was very trifling, or limited to the power of 

 determining the value of its letters, — Greek artists would then have 

 been out of the question ; and without some such knowledge it is diffi- 



