1836.] Mithraic Series of Coins. 643 



After this we can have little hesitation in translating MANAOBAro 

 ' lord of the months :' — indeed if we derive BAro from the Persian or 

 Scythic ^-*# beg, ' lord or prince,' we shall have precisely the cor- 

 responding term to tyrannus. 



Fig. 9. A gold coin of Kanerkos from a drawing by M. Court. The 

 rao in this seems to have a case for his bow strung behind his back. The 

 reverse is similar to that of a fine coin of OOHPKI in General Ventura's 

 series (fig. 9. of Plate XXXVIII. Vol. IV.) which however differs in 

 having the bust in lieu of the full length of the prince. The legend 

 APAOXO has been before explained as " the great sun*." One of 

 his attributes it may be presumed rather than the god himself, is 

 intended, by the female holding the cornucopia — typifying the ferti- 

 lity he bestows on the earth. 



Fig. 10 is a most important acquisition to our Mithraic series, as 

 being the very link of connection between them and the Canouj coins. 

 Immediately after the publication of my former plate, Lieut. Cun- 

 ningham wrote to me from Benares, pointing out a coin in his cabinet 

 of the class I had designated links, having the seated female with the 

 cornucopia, but more perfect than those I had engraved, inasmuch as 

 the legend to the left was preserved and legible as apaoxpo, the same 

 as that of the standing figure. A duplicate of the same coin was 

 also in Colonel Stacy's cabinet, and on reference to the Asiatic 

 Researches, Plate I., the letters of APAOXPO were clearly legible on the 

 reverse of fig. 6, a gold coin procured by Mr. Wilson from the bed 

 of a tank in the Hugli district. 



The cornucopia as a device seems to have been copied from the 



Roman coins of the Emperors. It is seldom or never to be seen on 



the genuine Greek coins — nor is it found on our Bactrian series until the 



age of Azos (with exception of the copper coins of Antimachus and 



Philoxenus, the date of which is uncertain). Whether it bears any 



direct allusion to the legend may be doubted, — at least such allusion is 



entirely lost sight of the moment we pass the boundary into the Indian 



series. 



Hindu coins imitated from the Ardohro type. 



Since my former paper on the Gupta coins of Canouj appeared, very 

 important acquisitions have been made to our knowledge of this 

 before unknown dynasty, through the medium of coins and of in- 

 scriptions ; for both of which we are almost entirely beholden to the 

 researches of Lieut. A. Cunningham and Mr. V. Tregear in the 

 neighbourhood of Benares. 



* The OPOOKPO of the copper coins may be deemed a still closer imitation 

 of the Sanscrit "^t-jjj^ Aryarka. APA is the Persian orthography. 

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