1840.] from Bactrian and Indo-Scythian coins. 263 



tion of a single word, viz. the name in the native legend upon 

 the coin of Agathokles,) the final place of a word ; all authentic 

 words do also end in T. Hence, because O is the termination of 

 the nominative singular masculine in the Zend, and because an 

 omicron occupies the final place whenever native words are 

 rendered by Grecian letters, as for instance PAO, KOPANO, 

 Mr. Prinsep infers,* that ^ must be the same with O. Mr. 

 Grotefend has arrived at the same result, and has noted eight 

 varieties of the symbol, two of which will prove genuine, (the 

 fourth and fifth), the others, however, are partly mutilations, 

 partly real, but indifferent deviations. In accordance with 

 Mr. Prinsep, I can admit only two varieties. *P appearsf often 

 with a small cross line below, a peculiarity, which, however, will 

 recur in many other letters. But whether the round above be 

 closed or not, is quite incidental. 



To the reasons alleged by Mr. Prinsep, I add also, that the 

 most common dialect of the Pracrit, instead of the A of the 

 Sanscrit, substitutes likewise 6 in the nominative sing. masc. 

 This is indeed the case only with masculine words, ending in A ; 

 but they form, as well in Zend, as in Sanscrit and Pracrit, by far 

 the most numerous class of words. This nominative, therefore, 

 refers also to India, as the native country of the Zend, and 

 decides nothing about the language upon the coins. 



Whether "P must be read as 6 long, or as short o, a+u, is not 

 easily to be decided. The Sanscrit has but a long 6 (compound 

 of a -}- u) . In the Zend, 6 is likewise a diphthong, to be con- 

 sidered as the coalescence of a and u, though one of both 

 forms of 6 may have been shortened in the pronunciation ; for 



* As. Jour. No. iv. p. 329. 



f For a long time Mr. James Prinsep, with Mr. Grotefend and the author 

 of this essay, read the character D as a form of the J u or 6, but he 

 latterly rejected this reading, and adopted the Sanscrit genitive as A instead 

 of the Zend one of O. The character was universal as a final of names, 

 and was evidently an inflection. The reasons for his reading p as an S 

 will be found in pages 642 and 643, vol. vii of the Journal, that is, in 

 the Journal for July, 1838. 



Mr. Lassen has admitted his preference of the reading of this letter as S, 

 in a letter to Mr. Prinsep we shall presently quote at length.— H. T. P. 



