1835.] Continuation of notes on Hindu Coins. 687 



trilingual and pyramidal, of the Sassanian fire-worship. The marginal 

 writing may with certainty he pronounced to be an ancient form of 

 Sanscrit ; but I cannot attempt to read it. In figures a, b, c, I have 

 copied the lines from three other coins, and have thus ascertained that 

 a portion of the legend is the same in all, while the remainder varies. 

 The former doubtless comprehends the regal titles ; but in it there is 

 no approach to the ordinary Indian terms of Raja, Rao, &c. The six 

 parallel letters may be read "qTlffPre. 



Figs. 4 and 5, differ from the preceding in the central device, which 

 now bears a rude resemblance to the human figure. The letters and 

 general execution are very imperfect. 



Figs. 6 to 9, are one step further removed from perfection. The 

 legend where best preserved, as in fig. 9, appears a mere repetition of 

 the letter p, with the suffix r, ri, and y. There are three letters 

 behind the head in fig. 7, which may be taken either for corrupted 

 Greek, or for the Pehlevi of the Sassanian coins, ouo. The cen- 

 tral symbol has the form of a trident. Lieut. Burnes informs me 

 that several hundred of these three species of coins were found in 

 Cutch in 1830 in a copper vessel buried in the ruins of Puragarh, 20 

 miles west of Bhoj, a place of great antiquity, and yet marked by the 

 ruins of a palace and a mint. 



Figs. 10, 11, 12, are of a different type, though nearly allied to the 

 former ; they are not only found in Gaj?rdt, but at Kanouj, Ujjain, and 

 generally in Upper India. Lieut. Cunningham has just sent me 

 impressions of five very well-preserved specimens procured at Benares, 

 on which in front of the face are seen some letters very like the 

 Pehlevi character, a.< <-o. The Sanscrit too is not of the elongated 

 form of the upper group, but exactly like that of Mr. Wathen's 

 Gujsrat inscriptions. Not having yet succeeded in decyphering them, 

 it is needless to copy out the mere letters at present. The symbol 

 in the centre will be recognized as the peacock, sacred to Kumara, 

 the Mars of the Rajputs, alluded to in the preceding observations. 



Figs. 13, 14, 15. The popular name for these rude coins, of silver 

 and of copper, is, according to Lieut. Burnes, in Gvjerdt, " Gadhia 

 led paisa," Jss money, or rather, "the money of Gadhia," a name of 

 Vikrama'ditya, whose father Jatanta, one of the Gandharbas, or 

 heavenly choristers, is reputed to have been cursed by Indra, and 

 converted into as ass. Wilford, in his Essay on the Era of Vikrama- 

 ditya, endeavours to trace, in this story, the Persian fable of Bahram- 

 gor's amours with an Indian Princess, whence were descended the 

 Gardabhina dynasty of Western India, (gardubha, being, in Sanscrit. 

 4 t 2 



