672 Continuation of notes on Hindu Coins. [Dec. 



legend is in general visible a square or oblong central ornament, with 

 two balusters on the sides : their intent is beyond my apprehension. 



Fig. 17, differs from the preceding in the reverse, although 

 its general similarity and its being found in company shew it to 

 belong to the same family. The two baluster-looking ornaments 

 again meet the eye — on the reverse is the initial word ^ Sri, and 

 below it % or "qf, yo or po. 



The flourish on the left hand is evidently intended for a human 

 face viewed in profile. 



In 18, the word Sri is again very distinct, but the head of the 

 boar-god is also apparent. In the Society's plate, I was the cause of 

 Mr. Wilson's mistaking the word ^t for the letter «J reversed, from 

 my having engraved the figure upside down. 



In 19, and 20, the human profile is better defined than in 17. 

 The contour of the ear, cheek and shoulder may be distinguished ; 

 the eye, nose, and lips, are represented by dots. In 20, the word Sri 

 is still discernible. 



On the reverse is a single letter, either k, s, or m, amidst flourishes. 

 In 21, the boar again appears, with the letters 3^ vaha or per- 

 haps X[3T ek. Of this sort, a quantity were dug up while I was at 

 Benares, by Mr. Taylor, judge of Mirzapur, near Sultdnpur. Mr. 

 Gubbins found several at Gurgdon to the south-west of Delhi. 



It seems impossible that coins so plentifully found in Upper India 

 should have been struck in the peninsula, or we might from the 

 device and superscription attribute them to the Vijyanagar sovereign- 

 ty ; for Colonel Wilks informs us, that " Vardha, the boar, one of 

 the incarnations of Vishnu, was the emblem which these rajas 

 adopted, as the impression on their gold coins, and the coin was and 

 is named Vardha in consequence, in the Hindu languages of the south." 

 The restriction however of this name to the small gold coins or huns 

 of the south is against this hypothesis. One of the Vijyanagar Vard- 

 has (of Deva Raya ?) is depicted as fig. 80 of Mr. "Wilson's plates ; 

 and though the attitude of the avatar is a rude imitation of ours, the 

 form of the Nagari character is there essentially different, and much 

 more modern. 



Similarity of name might tempt us to assign them to the Vardhas, 

 a powerful Indo-Scythic tribe to the west of Jesalmer, who were fre- 

 quently in collision with the Bhattis in the eighth century, or the foun- 

 dation of Tunnote*. But it does not appear from Col. Pottingek's 

 description of them, under the name of Brahooes, that these were ever 



* Tod's Rajasthan, ii. 229. 



