1835.] on Jndo-Scythic and Hindu Coins. 639 



ful nature. Mr. Wilson read the whole Nara-gupta : Dr. Mill, Sasi- 

 gvpfa. I have nothing new to offer on the suhject*. 



Having now ocular demonstration of the intimate relation of the 

 Indo-Scvthic with the 2nd class of Hindu coins, the question naturally 

 suggests itself, whether history is altogether silent on a point of such 

 curious interest ? 



In first contradiction of such an inference, we find that the Indo- 

 Scythic origin of the Rahtore dynasty of Kanouj has been advanced 

 on very plausible grounds by the highest authority on this subject, 

 Col. Tod, the annalist of Rajputanaf. He obtained from a Jati, 

 {Yati) or Jain priest of a temple at Nadolaye, an ancient town in 

 Mdrwdr, a genealogical roll of the Rahtores, about 50 feet in length. 

 " After detailing the usual theogony, it describes the production of 

 the first Rahtore 'from the spine (raht) of India,' the nominal father 

 being 'Yavanaswa, prince of Parlipur.' Of the topography of 

 Parlipur, the Rahtores have no other notion than that it was in the 

 north : but in the declared race of their progenitor, a Yavan or Greek 

 prince of the Aswa or Asi tribe, one of the four which overturned 

 the Greek kingdom of Bactria, we have a proof of the Scythic origin 

 of this Rajput family." 



May it not be possible that the Yavana prince here alluded to may 

 be the Azos (in Pehlevi Azo) of the series of Bactrian coins published 

 in my last notice ? The Sanscrit word Aswa would be pronounced 

 Aso, and be thus written in Persian or Pehlevi (as deo for deva, &c.) 

 The number and variety of his coins would imply that the name or 

 title was that of a considerable dynasty, and some of the devices, for 

 example, Nos. 10, 11, Plate XXII. of the goddess holding a cornucopia, 

 may have naturally been the prototype of the Kanouj coins. 



A considerable interval (from 300? to 470 A. D.) provokingly 

 occurs between the name of Yavanasva and the next prince, in 

 Col. Tod's list — whether also omitted in the Jain original, or filled up 

 only by barbarous and unintei'esting names, we are not informed. The 

 blank is relieved at length by the name of a genuine Hindu, Nayana- 

 pa'la ; but it happens that the missing part is the very one that could 

 alone throw light upon our numismatic discoveries. Several coins 

 (including the whole series of Kadphises and Kanerkis, intervene after 



* Since finishing my plate, I have received a drawing of a small silver coin 

 from Mr. Tregear, found at Jaunpur, having a head on one side, and on the 

 otherahird, with outspread wings, under which in clearly defined characters is 

 <3 i Aj^i Chandra-gupta. 



t Tod's Annals of Rajasthan, vol. ii. p. 5. 

 4 N 2 



