354 Lassen on the History traced [No. 100. 



the native language, unless the writing Ejakatido were chosen ; 

 but it was more natural to write e'ikatido. By this paraphrase 

 I acknowledge, that with Mr. Prinsep, I take T for e, viz. for 

 a long e, which was not confined to denoting the never shorten- 

 ed vowel of the Sanscrit, but which also expressed the lighter 

 one of the Pracrit, and which, as the analogous 6, "P, probably 

 had its constant place in the same line with the consonants. 

 The reason, that e in e'ikatido is not, as usual, expressed by i, 

 appears even to have proceeded from the impossibility of ap- 

 proaching the foreign sound in any other way, than in that, 

 above mentioned. 



With regard to the last two of our three new letters, we 

 shall call to mind, that they still have to be confirmed (17,) \ 

 k(18); Vi 5 (19,) ^e. 



Again k seems to occur in a name, hitherto obscure, and which 

 even now cannot be entirely illustrated. 



The Agathokleia-coin offers the unexpected and pleasing fact 

 of a Greek queen in that remote quarter of the East ;* upon 

 its one side we observe a helmeted head, whether of a woman 

 we shall leave undecided, with the legend ; BAEIAI22AS 

 eE0nP0n0(Y)ArA90KAEIA2. If we now look upon 

 the reverse for an interpretation of the unusual and obscure 

 epithet of the queen, we find the representation of a sitting 

 Hercules, who appears with the left hand to hold the lion^s 

 skin, and with the right perhaps leans on a rock, as upon 

 the coins of Euthy demos, where, however, he holds with the 

 left the club. While in expectation of the translation of the 

 Greek legend, we are surprized at the word ;f Wll(u) mahd- 

 rdgo. We know the language sufficiently to assert, that it, 

 like the Pracrit, has not used the masculine termination for 

 a queen. There is therefore the title of a king. Then follows 

 T >w in( w i) tdddro, deliverer. Two testimonial instances prove, that 



* As. Trans. V. PI. xlvi. No. 2. 



t Maharajasa according to Mr. James Prinsep, who particularly remarks, 

 that the masculine word is used. The word after Maharaja he sug- 

 gests may preferably be read Devamatasa, which is an exact translation of 

 GEOTPOnOY.-H. T. P. 



