1836.] Notes on the Antiquities of Bdmidn. 713 



grown sceptical as to that of Buddhist supremacy in these regions ; 

 and the term Indo-Scythic has yielded to that of Mithraic, which may 

 safely be adopted, as clearly indicating the religion of the ruling 

 powers, while it affects not the question of their race or descent. 

 It may be observed, that the later antiquities in Afghdnistdn and the 

 Panjdb, or in the countries along the course of the Indus, are appa- 

 rently mixed Mithraic and Buddhist ; nor is it improbable that the 

 two systems, if they were really generically distinct ones, should have 

 been blended in the limits to which both extended, and were both 

 met — it being considered that Buddhism will have been propagated 

 with vivacity when Mithraism was languishing in decline. 



Gur objections to the term Parthian, as applied to the coins pro- 

 visionally so called, and to the princes commemorated by them, 

 and possibly by the idols, arise principally from the impossibility 

 of deeming them Arsakian. Under that powerful dynasty, which 

 so long controlled Persia, it is generally understood that the 

 worship of Mithra was discouraged : — we know not why it should 

 have been, and might ask in return, of what religion besides 

 the Mithraic could the Arsakian monarchs have been professors? 

 It may be, that as Parthians, who have been supposed to be of 

 Scythic origin, they were followers after the manner of their fore- 

 fathers, whose rites it is one of the objects of the Zendavesta to 

 depreciate and to condemn : while with the virulent feelings common 

 to sectarians, and in possession of the necessary power to allow their 

 exhibition, they might have neglected no occasion to discountenance 

 the opposite rites and observances in vogue with the people of Cyrus 

 — whence may be accounted for, during their sway, the neglect of 

 Persepolis and the fire temples of Istakr. The fire-altar never occurs 

 on any of the coins of the Arsakian princes, while it is seen on those 

 we suspect to be referrible to the princes commemorated at Bdmidn. The 

 same emblem, indeed, distinguishes the coins of the Sassanian princes 

 of Persia, successors in authority to the Arsakianline, and who re- 

 kindled the sacred fires throughout the land, which had been extinct 

 for centuries — but on their coins, it is always accompanied by two 

 guardians or defenders — which are wanting on the coins of our princes ; 

 and as the more simple may be presumed the more ancient form, 

 we might deduce from the circumstance a corroborative proof, 

 that they are prior in date to the Sassanian monarchs of Persia. 

 Should this view be correct, we learn that cotemporaneous with a 

 portion of the Arsakian dynasty, a powerful and independent so- 

 vereignty existed in Bactriana, whose princes became of the orthodox 

 Mithraic faith, or that so lauded in the Zendavesta. It is obvious 



