82 Application of Coins in History. 



Where dates are not given in inscriptions, the style of the Nagari 

 character will frequently serve to determine their antiquity. The cave 

 temples of the west of India exhibit the most ancient form ; the Gujerat 

 type, above alluded to, of the 4th century, has apart connection with 

 them, and part with an inscription atGva.and another on the Allahabad 

 hith : — these again are linked by intervening gradations to the Tibetan 

 alphabet, of which we know from Tibetan authors the existing Nagari 

 of Magadha was taken as the basis in the seventh century. We shall 

 soon be able to furnish a tolerably accurate paleeographical series of 

 the Devanagari, but can here only allude to the subject. — In the tenth 

 and eleventh centuries, it undergoes the modification observable on 

 the Gaur, Sdrndth, and Shekdwati inscriptions, resembling very nearly 

 the Bengali type, of which it is doubtless the parent. The modern 

 Nagari is found on monuments of the 13th century, when the irruption 

 of the Moghuls prevented any further change. There is also a still 

 earlier character on the Delhi, Allahabad, and Tirhut Iciths, which 

 remains yet undecyphered ; stixmg reasons have been advanced for its 

 alliance to tbe Sanscrit group, if it contain not indeed the original 

 symbols of that language. (See Journal As. Soc. vols. iii. iv.) 



In all other countries, coins and medals have been esteemed the 

 most legitimate archives and proofs of their ancient history. In India, 

 little recourse to such evidence has hitherto been available. The few 

 Hindu coins discovered have been neglected or deemed illegible. The 

 subject is however now attracting more atterftion,from the recent disco- 

 very of Bactrian and Indo-Scythic coins in great abundance in the Pan~ 

 jab, bearing names hitherto quite unknown, in Greek, and on the reverse 

 side in a form of Pehlevi character. The series is continued down to, and 

 passes insensibly into, the purely Hindu coins of Kanouj, and some 

 are in our possession, with Greek and Sanscrit on the same field. This 

 verv circumstance tends to bear out Colonel Tod's supposition of the 

 Kanouj princes having an Indo-Scythic origin. Yavan-asva, their pro- 

 genitor, may indeed be " the Greek Azo," of whose coins we have so 

 plentiful a supply*. The Sanscrit characters on the Kanouj coins are 

 of the earlier type belonging to the fourth or fifth century : — they will 

 soon, it is hoped, be read, and put us in possession of several new 

 names. 



Other coins, in a still more ancient character, and nearly resembling 



the undecvphered letters of the laths or the cave-sculpturesf, are dug 



up in the Delhi district : — they are found in company with Buddhist 



relics, and will hereafter, doubtless, lead to historical information. 



A third series of coins, with devices of a brahmani bull, and ahorse- 



* See Journal As. Soc. June 1835. f See Journal As. Soc. vol. iii. p. 495. 



