116 Coins of the Nine Ndgas. [No. 3, 



of coins give their own dates, which accord exactly with the dates of 

 the inscriptions and with a solitary notice in Ferishta. 



3. The first series of coins, from No. 1 to No. 14, may ho attribut- 

 ed, I think with considerable probability, to a dynasty of kings whom 

 the Puranas call the " Nine Nagas," and who would appear to have 

 been contemporary with the Gfuptas. In the Vishnu Purana, it is 

 stated that " the Nine Nagas will reign in Padmavati, Kantipuri and 

 " Mathura, and the Guptas of Magadha along the Granges to Prayaga 

 " and Saketa, and Magadha." Padmavati was at first identified by 

 H. H. Wilson with some unknown city in Eerar, far to the south of 

 the Narbada, and afterwards with Bkagalpur on the Granges, but the 

 mention of Mathura utterly precludes the possibility of either of those 

 places having belonged to the Nagas. Both cities should no doubt be 

 looked for within some moderate distance of Mathura. The scene of 

 Bhavabhuti's Malati and Madhava is laid in the city of Padmavati in 

 the Vindhyan mountains. As his description of the locality is a 

 favourable specimen of Hindu poetry, I will not curtail it. 



" How wide the prospect spreads, mountain and rock, 

 " Towns, villages and woods, and glittering streams, — 

 " There where the Pdrd and the Sindhu wind, 

 " The towers and temples, pinnacles and gates, 

 " And spires of Padmavati, like a city 

 " Precipitated from the skies, appear 

 " Inverted in the pure translucent wave." 

 The Sindhu is, I think the Sindh river on which the city of Narwar 

 Is situated, and the Pdrd is the Pdrbati or Pdrd river, which flows 

 only 5 miles to the north of the Sindh. Narwar also is in the midst 

 of the Vindhyan mountains, and at a moderate distance, about 160 

 miles, from Mathura, so that there are no geographical difficulties to 

 overthrow the proposed identification. On the contrary the subse- 

 quent mention of the Madhuvati and the Lavana as streams in the 

 neighbourhood of the city, renders this identification almost complete, 

 as the first may be identified with the Mohwar or Madhuwar on 

 the south, and the other with the Nun or Lun to the north. With 

 regard to the third city named Kantipuri, I agree with Wilford in 

 identifying it with the ancient Kutivdl or Kutwdr, on the Ahsin river, 

 20 miles to the north of Gwalior. The kingdom of the Na^as there- 



