648 Lassen on the History traced [No. 103. 



with a glory^ seated on a couch ; one foot on the ground^ the 

 other, on the couch.* Here also the name is illegible. 



There is another type of a figure sitting in a cross-legged 

 position ; some other varieties may probably be still dis- 

 covered. 



The most ancient specimens of these coins have a tolerably 

 good style, and distinct letters ; both become gradually worse, 

 and lastly deteriorate into a chaos ; then follow the Indian imi- 

 tations. The places of discovery prove, that the Kanerki 

 dynasty possessed, at least at the commencement of their rule, 

 a large territorial dominion ; from the traces of the Shiva wor- 

 ship, we may conclude that the Kanerkis added to the worship 

 of Mithra, introduced by them from Bactria, the worship of 

 Shiva, as it occurred with the Kadaphises.f Hence they must 

 (partly at least) have taken possession of the dominions of the 

 Kadaphises. We may consider their dialect either as a more 

 modern one, or as a provincial variety. It is evident from the 

 coins, that they out-lasted the Kadaphises^ who never sunk into 

 the same barbarism. 



It will remain doubtful, whether the Kanerkis maintained 

 themselves till within the Sassanian period, unless it be decided, 

 that the topes must be ascribed indisputably to the Kanerkis. 

 They certainly reigned in India before the time of the Sassa- 

 nians. Lastly, the opinion, that the Kanerkis were Buddhists, or 

 in other words, that we have to recognise Kanishka in Kanerki, 



* A. T. III. pi. XXII. No. 29. IV. pi. 21. No. 9. 



t The worship of Shiva appears to have prevailed in Cabul in the first 

 centuries of our era, and beside it, pure Buddhism was widely diffused. 

 Hiuan Thsang at least mentions a temple of Bhima, viz. of Parvati or 

 Doorga, in Gandhara, p. 379. But Megasthenes appears to have already 

 corrected this mistake. For if he reported, according to Arrian and Strabo, 

 that the Indians of the plains worshipped Hercules (whereby Mathura is 

 made mention of) and that the mountaineers, on the other hand, adored 

 Dionysos, these latter must be probably understood to be the inhabitants 

 of the mountainous districts about the Cabul, and below Kazmira, in the 

 Punjab, while the plains are those of the inner country, and on the borders 

 of the Jumna and Ganges. It is true, it has been of late doubted, whether 

 Hercules be Krishna, but I hardly think, one acquainted with these sub- 

 jects, will doubt it any more, than that Dionysos cannot be but Shiva. 



