1840.] from Bactrian and Inda- Scythian coins. 633 



MahdrdJS, in Cabulian characters^ andron the reverse the same 

 words m the old Indian characters of the Agathokles coins^ and 

 the Azoka columns.* By this fact it is quite evident_, that the 

 Cabulian alphabet on the coins was not in use in India Proper, 

 and this at the period when the most ancient form of the 

 Devanagari, which we as yet know, was still prevailing. Those 

 Buddhist kings whom we otherwise do not know, must have 

 employed the Cabulian characters only for the use of their sub- 

 jects on the banks of the Indus. 



It does not follow from the foregoing remarks, that the cha- 

 racters are not more ancient than the coins upon which they 

 occur. If no coins were previously struck there, the characters 

 could not indeed be used for numismatic purposes, but they 

 would be in the transactions of other business. When Panini 

 (IV. I. 49) informs us, that by the affix ani to the word Javana, 

 the writing peculiar to this nation Javanarii 5r^?rr«Tt f%f^; 

 ^^«TT*ft is represented, he perhaps points at the Cabulian 

 alphabet. According to Indian tradition, Panini is placed im- 

 mediately before Chandragupta, (therefore during the reign of 

 Alexander the Great) ; it is more certain, however, that his 

 native country was the ancient Gandhara, where he would be 

 certainly enabled to become familiar with the characters of the 

 Javanas of that country. 



I have taken it for granted in the course of the preceding 

 remarks, that the Indians were already possessed of an alphabet 

 of their own, at the period when the Greek kings first extended 

 their dominion to the south of the Caucasus; some of my inferen- 

 ces are mainly founded upon this view. 



* I owe this important fact to communications Mr. Prinsep made me 

 by letter. The proper names are not yet read, as far as I know, upon 

 the coins of this kind, with duplicate legends ; those that are read, are only 

 in old Indian characters and Indian. As. Trans. VI. 464. As those others 

 are ancient, I presume, that on these very coins, monuments of the dynasty 

 of the Buddhist Khanishka will be brought to light ; for he must have 

 reigned a short time before or after the commencement of our era ; he 

 ruled Gandhara, Kazmira, and the country Keenaputi 500 hs to the eastward 

 fi*om VipazEl, (Foe K. p. 381). This lies in the nearest neighbourhood 

 of Behat, and the use of the two-fold characters for the same language is 

 exactly suited to these countries. 



