3J8 Lasseir's Bactrian and Indo- Scythian coins. [No. 100. 



first degree of the decomposition of grammatical structure of the 

 Sanscrit, evidence of which is exhibited to us in Pracrit, the lan- 

 guage was about to retrograde another step ; thus, not distinctly 

 comprehending the sense of the old form, the language then in 

 use could no longer distinguish the peculiar form of the root from 

 that of the termination. 



The name Kanerki has been compared with Kanishka, which 

 occurs in the chronicle of Caschmir, and in the traditions of the 

 Buddhists. I would not scruple at the r, as supplied by sh, and 

 if the comparison of them was well founded, I would even 

 proceed a step further, and find in OrjpKi the same Hushka, who 

 is mentioned with Kanishka. On the supposition, that OypKi 

 might stand for Huirki, and sh substituted for r, we could easily 

 fancy Huishka to be altered into Hushka. But besides the 

 difficulties in chronology, which I have not to enter upon 

 at present, another reason from the coins themselves is 

 opposed to our recognizing Hushka and Kanishka in OrjpKi 

 and KavripKi, Both of them are described as Buddhist ; upon 

 the coins of these latter, however, a worship, entirely deviating 

 from that of the Buddhists, is distinctly obvious. 



For these coins present on their reverse figures of gods, as to 

 which, on a reference to the various religious systems, prevailing 

 for the first centuries of our era in central Asia, we fortunately 

 can be but rarely in doubt. The names occur with them, and 

 in part quite legible. I may here refer to the explanation, most 

 successfully given by K. O. Mueller,* on the system of gods, 

 represented upon the Kanerki-coins. According to him, it is a 

 system of typified gods, originating in the pure worship of 

 Zoroaster 5 s doctrine of light, which readily adopted the elements 

 of the worship of Nature, prevailing in Asia Minor at that pe- 

 riod, while it at the same time communicated to all the objects 

 of worship, so adopted, the general stamp of gods of light. 



* Goett. Gel. Anz. 1838, 237, p. 233. 

 (To he continued.) 





