865.] Ancient Indian Weights^ G9 



the arrangement of so many prior and subsequent series of the subor- 

 dinate mintages of a country whose early annals were so largely per- 

 verted or sacrificed to sectarian hostility. 



I have still two purely numismatic questions to advert to before 

 concluding this paper. Reference has already been made to the adop- 

 tion by the Greeks of the Indian or square form of money, but if the 

 period and personal identity of the Krananda of these coins are rightly 

 determined, the Greek Bactrians must have condescended to appropriate 

 further oriental mint developments. Alexander the Great, Seleucus, 

 and all those invaders who might have influenced Indian art, had their 

 nominal legends arranged in parallel lines, or at the utmost on three 

 sides of a square, on the inner field of the reverse. 



Diodotus, Agathocles, Euthydemus, Demetrius, and other Bactrian 

 Hellenes, who came into closer contact with India to the westward, 

 retained the same practical arrangement of legends. So far as the 

 existing numismatic data authorise a conclusion, Eucratides was the 

 first to commence any marked modification of the practice, and to lean 

 towards the filling up the complete outer margin of the coin with royal 

 names and titles. Of course, if Krananda came after all these Bactrian 

 Greeks, he may have imitated their customs ; but if, as it would appear, 

 he was a contemporary of Alexander, ruling in a distant and unassailed 

 part of the country, it is clear that local art was thus far independent 

 and in advance of that of Greece, and that the Bactrian and Scythian 

 interlopers* borrowed circular legends from India. 



In contrasting the equitable adjustment and full value of the early 

 punch-impressed pieces, with the irregularity in these respects, to be 

 detected in the mechanically improved and more advanced specimens 

 of Indian mintages, 1 was lately led to instance the identical coins of 

 Krananda as proofs of what unscrupulous kings might do, even in the 

 very introductory application of ideas of seigniorage, towards depre- 

 ciating their own currency. The results in question were cited to 

 exemplify the statement in the Mahawanso, where the Brahman 

 ChdnaJcya is accused of so operating on the coin of the realm as to 



* The mention of these later Scythians recalls the curious coincidence of 

 many of the subordinate mombors of the ruling families designating themselves, 

 somewhat after the manner of Krananda, " Brothers" and even " Nephews of 

 the King," &c. Seo Num., Chron. vol xix. Nos. xxvii. class B, and xxxiv. 



