x Preface. 



coveries might through him be combined into one general 

 result. 



The consequence has been, that in a very short time the 

 desired link between the histories of the East and West has 

 been completely established, and races of kings have been traced 

 down from the immediate followers of Alexander, who settled 

 in Bactria and Kabul, and established a Grecian device and 

 inscription for their coin, and even from before that, when 

 Western India was a province of Persia, to the times when 

 the Hindu successors of the Satraps and Grecian kings yield- 

 ed to the Muhammadan conquerors, and thence too down- 

 ward even to the present day. 



The corruptions of language and of alphabet, traceable in 

 these coins, mark as clearly the successions of races, as if the 

 date of each had been consecutively stamped on the coins, and 

 the simultaneous collection of inscriptions from all parts of 

 India, with the key obtained for decyphering them, has afforded 

 a ready test for the accuracy of the numismatic deductions, and 

 an aid to their more complete development. 



One object yet remained to excite the zeal, and to occupy the 

 attention of those devoted to these pursuits. The History of 

 India had been traced back to the period before the invasion of 

 Alexander, and had been verified at each step by coins and by 

 inscriptions, but the language of Bactria and of Persia at the 

 period of that conquest was still insufficiently ascertained. 

 To this object our Editor was devoted, when he was overtaken 

 by sickness and compelled to leave India. The Bactrian alpha- 

 bet was already more than half discovered, through the com- 

 parison of letters upon coins with bilingual superscriptions. 

 Several inscriptions, as obtained from the Topes exeavated, or as 

 forwarded by travellers from within the ancient limits of Bac- 

 tria, were nearly decyphered, so that very little remained to 

 perfect this discovery also, and to establish that the ancient 

 Pali language, or something very closely resembling it, prevail- 

 ed over all those countries. 



To the world it is a loss, to himself a disappointment, that his 

 series of the Journal closes before this discovery also is complet- 

 ed. We hope and trust that the scene of its development is 

 only changed, or rather that he, who has achieved so much for 



