1836.] Coins of the Mithraic Series. 



IV. — New varieties of the Mithraic or Indo-Scythic Series of Coins and 

 their imitations. By James Pkinsep, Sec. As. Soc. &c. 



From the variety of the Mithraic reverses already made known, it 

 might have been imagined that the series was nearly exhausted. Every 

 year, however, adds a few new types to our previous list, or produces 

 finer samples of these hitherto considered indistinct. So multiplied, 

 indeed, are our resources at the present time, that we can afford to be 

 fastidious, and not only reject coins of the baser metals, but limit 

 the admission even of golden novelties to those of one size, weight 

 and value ! 



My object in Plate XXXVI. is to develope more fully the transi- 

 tion from the Mithraic or Indo-Scythic coinage to the Hindu series, 

 for which my numerous friends have furnished even more unequivocal 

 links than those engraved in my former Plate, (XXXVIII. of Vol. IV.) 

 I must begin, however, with a few novelties of the true Mithra type. 



Fig. 1 is the first to rivet our attention and curiosity. It is an 

 unique of Mr. Masson's discovery. The obverse has the usual stand- 

 ing figure of the Raja sacrificing, with the lpgend PAO NANO PAO 

 KANHPKI KOPANO. The reverse has an armed figure, nearly the 

 counterpart of the other, but without any altar, and with the usual 

 monogram: the legend being in Masson's drawing, OPAArNO- Not 

 having the coin itself before me, the reading I venture to substitute 

 for this, is of course liable to correction ; but the strong similitude 

 between the commencement of this legend and of the two curious 

 ones formerly noticed, namely, APAOXPO and APAH0PO, leave little 

 doubt in mv mind that the one before us should be read 

 APAArNo ; the word ArNO representing the Sanscrit ^ftr Agni, 

 the god of fire ; whom we may reasonably suppose to be substituted 

 for Athra, as the Sanscrit ^^" Arka has been for Mithra in the Indian- 

 ized designation, OKPO. The Pehlevi affix APa Arda (generally 

 written APTA by the Greeks) implying 'the great,' bears an evident 

 connection with ^EJ5J Arya, a common Sanscrit epithet of the same 

 signification, 'excellent;' or ^[Qf Arya, holy, venerable ; as ^ 3 -Zf?nT 

 arya-man, the sun, ^rnZFTfl dryavarta, the holy land, (India) &c. 

 Aria also occurs in combination in Persian names beginning with 

 consonants, as Ariobarzanes, king of Armenia, — a derivative from 

 Berzin, the planet Jupiter of the Mithraic system*. 



Further search, should these conjectures be well grounded, will 

 probably bring to light coins with the single appellation ArNO, which 

 has not hitherto been observed. 



*Vaillant Ars. Imp. I. 183. 



