1841.] Description of some Ancient Gems and Seals, Sfc* 157 



manists; for there can scarcely have been less pollution to a Hindu in 

 the friendship than in the contact of a Buddhist. The Bhaganat Pura- 

 na also says that Nanda and his successors were' Sudras, void of piety. 7 

 The Vishna Purana adds that he was avaricious ; and they both agree in 

 stating that a Brahman was the chief agent in destroying the nine 

 Nandas. Avarice and want of piety are the usual sins attributed to any 

 Prince who neither respects nor entertains the Brahmans ; and such sins 

 would of course be committed by every Buddhist King ; who like Asoka 

 would have turned out all the Brahmans supported at the royal expense 

 and have entertained Buddhist priests in their place. 1 cannot there- 

 fore help suspecting that as a Brahman was the chief conspirator 

 against the Nandas it is more probable that the rebellion was only a re- 

 ligious struggle for political ascendancy, in which the Brahman Kautilya 

 succeeded in establishing the authority of his own caste and religion 

 under the new King Chandra Gupta ; than that it was a justifiable up- 

 rising of the people, occasioned by the avarice and tyranny of Nanda. 



Nanda himself was called Mahapadma ; his wife was called Sumanda ; 

 and his eight sons, according to the Vishnu and Bhaganat Puranas, were 

 4 Sumalya and others 7 To one of these nameless princes then I would 

 attribute this seal, if not to the elder Nanda Mahapadma himself, to 

 whom the coins almost certainly belong : — for it appears from the Rajah 

 Taringini that the younger or junior Rajas were not allowed the pri- 

 vilege of coining in their own names ; and therefore the eight sons of 

 Nanda, who reigned conjointly with their father can scarcely have 

 struck any coins : — but whether the seal belongs to the father or to one 

 of his sons, its age is not affected by the uncertainty ; and we may there- 

 fore consider it as old at least as the time of Alexander the Great. 



No. 23. Copper. — This seal cannot I think be more than three hun- 

 dred years old, and perhaps not even so much. The inscription in mo- 

 dern Devanagari is Sri Hara Deva-ji sahdya paramanda. The fortunate 

 Hara Deva, the companion of happiness. 



Alexander Cunningham. 



Note. — A gem identical with No. 2 of the plate supplied me hy Lt. Cunningham 

 is noted by Bayer (the first investigator of Bactrian history) as No. 37 in the splen- 

 did collection of gems belongiug to Martin Von Ebermayer, a wealthy merchant of 

 Nuremburg, which he illustrated in a very erudite work under the following title : — 

 ' Gemmarum AfFabre Scalptarum Thesaurus, quem suis sumptibus haud exiguis, nee 

 parvo studio collegit Io. Mart, ab Ebermayer.' The engravings of the collection which 

 accompany the letter press are exceedingly well executed : a copy of the work (Fol. 

 ed. prin.) is in my possession and now lies betore me, The design, from Bayer's note 

 upon it, would appear to have been a favorite one ; he speaks of two other gems (Thes. 

 antiq. Grsec.) not dissimilar, which Angustin held to represent not Omphale but Iole, 

 but he afterwards abandoned that opinion, and declared the figure (as did also Begero 



