344 Lassen on the History traced [No. 100. 



change the nominative as into 6. The variety rdgddirdgo contains 

 a remarkable mistake in orthography, the word adhirdga u Su- 

 preme King,* often met with in the titles of Indian Kings, 

 has dh, not d. Whether the stamp-cutters in Azes' time, per- 

 haps not often natives, did not pay much attention to the pro- 

 prieties of indigenous grammar, or whether the language itself 

 confounded both sounds, d and dh, I shall not pretend to decide; 

 there will hereafter indeed occur some other examples of the 

 same substitution. 



Mahato (great) compels us to declare the language of the 

 coins a variety of Pracrit. The Sanscrit nominative is mahan, 

 the Pracrit nominative mahanto ; the terminal 6 at this place 

 proves also, that the alteration of as into 6 occurred in all 

 instances, as in Pracrit. The writing mahato, by exhibiting 

 the same omission of n, as occurred in Atimakho for Antimachos, 

 proves, that it is not the pure Indian Pracrit, but a dialect, 

 approaching also to the old Persian ; for when the arrow-headed 

 inscriptions render gaddrd, hidhushf for gandara, hindush, there 

 is the same exsection of n, when followed by dentals, or 

 properly an absorption, when n is rendered like the succeed- 

 ing letter; thus the Byzantines said Kaddakootzen, instead 

 of Kantakootzen. The language of the coins, however, like the 

 Zend, has no reduplicated consonants, consequently not mahatto. 



The constant epithet aviKr}Tog, is very distinct upon the 

 Philoxenos coin (As. Trans. Vol. iv. Pl.xxi. No. 1.) *PnlHir>94 

 Apalihatd. Apratihata signifies in Sanscrit non repulsus ; the 

 preposition prati often becomes in Pracrit pali.§ We have 

 consequently got another Pracrit form of quite unexceptionable 

 interpretation. NiK^opoc and vucariop are expressed by the 

 same word. See the coins of Amyntas (As. Trans. Vol. v. 



* Atirag'a, being not in use for this title, I shall leave it undiscussed, 

 if there it must not be read ^ ti. 



t According to Mr. Beer's correction ; I have much pleasure in availing 

 myself of this opportunity to thank him publicly for his solid and 

 instructive, as well as kind, critique of my work on arrow-headed writing. 



X Mr. James Prinsep reads this epithet Jjyavihatasa +c, and this TI^UJiA 

 Jayadharasa. 



§ My Grammar, iv. 5. 0. 



