88 Kajendralala Mitra — On a Coin of Kunanda from Karndl. No. 1, 



by the name of his mother ; he is the lowest of the low who is known by 

 the name of his father-in-law",*" and the action of men has everywhere in 

 this country been regulated by this maxim. A brother holds a lower grade 

 than a mother, and he who should wish to be known in his coins by the 

 name of his brother, must have been lower than the vile being who is known 

 by the name of his mother. Doubtless when a brother exercises paramount 

 power, his name cannot be avoided, and Mr. Thomas very correctly argues 

 that the fact of the Nanda brothers having ruled jointly may justify the 

 assumption of Amogha having been the eldest brother, and his name had 

 therefore to be used. This, however, would pre-suppose that the name of 

 the eldest brother was well known, which is not the case. The Puranas 

 and the Mahawanso give only three names, viz., Sumalya, Mahapadma 

 Nanda, and Dhana Nanda. In a mediaeval paraphrase, by Anantakavi, 

 of the Mudrdrdhshasa, the nine brothers are thus named : Udagradhahva, 

 Tikshnadhanva, Vikatadhanva, Utkatadhanva, Prakatadhanva, Sankata- 

 dhanva, Vishamadhanva, Sikharadhanva, and Prakharadhanva.f These 

 names are evidently fanciful, and cannot be relied upon. Anyhow no 

 ancient or mediaeval work mentions Amogha, and the assumption of Amoglia 

 being a proper name is founded solely upon the strength of the supposed 

 meaning of the word bhratara ' a brother', with which it is compounded in the 

 coin legend, and that being untenable, the assumption must fall to the ground. 

 I have already pointed out that amogha as a common noun means ' unflin- 

 ching' or ' unfailing'. Now, the most appropriate words that can be joined 

 with it are valour, protection, and faith. The first, however, has no Sanskrit 

 equivalent which can be represented by bhratisa or bhatisa, so it may be at once 

 set aside. Bhri " to protect" becomes bhartri " protector" in the crude form, 

 and bhartd in the nominative singular. In the Pali its counterpart would 

 be bhattd or bhatd, (in the modern Bengali it is bhdtdr for ' a husband'), and 

 had the reading been bhatasa or bhratasa, the compound term of the coin 

 could have been taken for an " unfailing protector", but the mark of the i 

 over the t will not admit of this interpretation. The last word ' faith' is 

 represented in Sanskrit by bha/cti, which in Ceylonese Pali becomes bhatti ; 



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