1840.] from Bactrian and Indo- Scythian coins. 631 



They are discovered to the east in topes, near Jelalabad, and 

 between the Indus and Hydaspes m Manikyala, but further 

 eastward than this, they have not been met with. We also do 

 not know yet whether they extend to Kandahar, in a more 

 westerly direction. To the north of the Cabul river those cha- 

 racters are met with in Kapurdigarhi, in the ancient Peuke- 

 laotis. As. Trans, v. PI. xxviii. 



As the matter therefore rests at present, we may assert, that 

 these characters were geographically limited to the country 

 about the Cabul river, and we will term the characters on the 

 coins THE Cabulian Alphabet. 



Menandros, or Eukratides, is the first who made use of the 

 alphabet. That we may not pretend to fix the time more 

 exactly than the facts admit, we shall assign their first occur- 

 rence to the years 180 — 1/0 (b. c.) It existed in use, as has 

 been already noticed, till within the Sassanian era, and is 

 therefore coeval with the character found further west on the 

 monuments and coins of the Sassanides. 



The latest occurrence of these characters is perhaps found in 

 the report of Hiuan Thsang, when he says, that in Thsaokiutho 

 other characters than the Indian were in use ; now there, in the 

 country to which our alphabet was indigenous, about the Pan- 

 jhir, a tributary of the Cabul, it appears hardly possible to 

 allude to any other characters than to these. 



But it was, on the other hand, also cotemporary with the 

 Indian alphabet, which appears as early upon the coins of 

 Agathokles and Pantaleon, and proves entirely different, both by 

 its opposite mode of writing and by the shape of its characters. 

 This Indian alphabet occurs immediately before this date on the 

 columns of Azoka (260 — 219. b. c.)* and continues under the 

 Indian kings of the Maurja dynasty. f As now the empire of 

 Azoka extended to the Indian Caucasus (I shall hereafter recur 

 to this) and as it would appear preposterous that he should 

 have introduced an alphabet foreign to him upon the stupas 

 which he is said to have built there, J as on the contrary the 



* Zeitschrift fuer die Kunde des Morgenkinder, As. Trans, vi. 791. 

 t As. Trans, vi. 678. 

 I Foe K. p. 395. 



