1865.] Ancient Indian Weights. 55 



the nearly full-surface die-struck money with devices of an elephant 

 and a panther ;* which class in turn merge naturally into the similar 

 though advanced fabrics of the mints of Agathocles and Pantaleon, of 

 square or oblong forrn,f a shape the Greeks had not previously made 

 use of, but which when once adopted they retained without scruple, 

 whatever their early prejudices might have been — possibly out of re- 

 spect for local associations, a motive which weighed sufficiently with 

 their successors and other Bactrian Hellenes to induce them to per- 

 petuate the square indifferently with the circular coins. The excep- 

 tional, or in this case indigenous form, found favour in later generations 

 with the Muhammadan conquerors, who sanctioned unreservedly square 

 pieces in common with the circular forms, up to the time of Shah 

 Jehan (a.d. 1628-58). But though these unshapely bits of metal ran 

 on in free circulation up to the advent of the Greeks, this by no means 

 implies that there were not other and more perfect currencies matured 

 in India. The use of the time-honoured punch survived in the Penin- 

 sula till very lately, but no one would infer from this fact that there 

 were not more advanced methods of coining known in the land. In 

 fact, like other nations of the East, the Hindus have uniformly evinc- 

 ed more regard for intrinsic value than criticism of the shape in which 

 money presented itself. 



Many of these ancient symbols, more especially the four-fold Sun 

 (17, No 1, Plate XL) are found established in permanence on the 

 fully-struck coinage of Ujain,|. of a date not far removed from the 

 reign of Asoka, who once ruled as sub-king of that city; the pro- 

 bable period of issue is assumed from the forms of the Indian-Pali let- 

 ters embodying the name of U'jenini, the local rendering of the later 

 classical Sanskrit Ujjayini. Associated in the same group as regards 



* These coins are still mere compromises, being formed from an obverse 

 j)unch, with a full surface reverse. " Ariana Antiqua," pi. xv. figs. 26, 27 ; 

 Prinsep's " Essays," i. pi. xx. figs. 50, 51, page 220 ; Cunningham's pi. i., &c. 



While upon this subject, I may notice the discovery of the name of Agathocles 

 in Bacti'ian characters on a coin of similar fabric. His name, it will be re- 

 membered, has hitherto only been found in the Indian-Pali transcript of the 

 Greek (Num. Chron. N.S. iv. 196). The piece in question has, on the obverse, 

 a Chaitya, with a seven-pointed star, and the name Akathakayasa (possibly 

 Ankathakrayasa). The reverse bears the conventional sacred tree, with the 

 title Maho/raja strangely distorted into Hi,ra/jasa,me or He,ragasa,me. 



f A. A., pi. vi. figs. 7, 8, 9, 11 ; Prinsep's " Essays," pi. xxviii. 8, 9 ; vol. 

 ii. pp. 179, 180 ; " Jour, des Sav.," 1835, pi. i. fig. i. 



% " Jour. As. Soc. Bengal," vol. vii., pi, lxi., p. 1054. 



