572 Silver Plate found at Badakshdn. QNo. 115. 



lion. The Guptas besides, were contemporary with the most flourishing 

 period of the Sassanian monarchy, from a. d. 350 to 500, and even 

 an interchange of presents took place between them and the Sassanian 

 kings ; but which however both parties mention as tribute. 



But the coincidence of subject on the coins of the Guptas and Sas- 

 sanians becomes more striking, when we see that the sculptures, gems, 

 and coins of the latter represent the lion being attacked by a hero on 

 foot. A gem published by Ouseley in the Oriental Collections, repre- 

 sents the Sassanian king Balash, or Ealasces, on horseback, exactly in 

 the same way in which the kings Chandra Gupta and Kumara Gupta 

 Mahendra are represented upon the Indian coins. But the most curi- 

 ous circumstance is, that we can trace this same horseman from his 

 first appearance on the coins of the Bactrian king Mayas,* (whom I con- 

 fidently hope to be able to identify with Demetrius, the son of Euthy- 

 demus,) through the coins of Azas and Azilisas, Undopherras, and Abal- 

 gasus, down to the Indo- Parthian king Arsaces ; and then through the 

 Sassanian sculptures, gems, and coins, and through the coins of the Hin- 

 doo Guptas of Kanoj, and the Pala family of Labor, down through the 

 Mahomedan coinage of the Ghaznivides, and through the Pathan coin- 

 age of India, to the time of Mahmud, the cotemporary of Timur; or 

 from B.C. 200 to a.d. 1400, for a period of 1600 years. All this 

 I undertake to make good, when I shall publish my account of the na- 

 tive coinages of India. 



Alexander Cunningham. 

 Lucknow, 25tk June, 1841. 



* I beg to refer my readers to a paper in No. 96 of the Asiatic Society's Journal, in 

 which the identification of Mayas with Demetrius was first maintained in opposition to 

 the theory of Mons. Raoul-Rochette, and others. My friend Lieut. Cunningham has, I 

 am gratified to find, adopted my views, as stated in the paper above noted ; views how- 

 ever which he is infinitely better qualified than myself to maintain by sound historical 

 argument. |T| 



