1839.] Objects of Research in Afghanistan. 145 



Art. IV .—Objects of Research in Afghanistan. By Professor 



Lassen, of Bonn. 



[We have the pleasure to insert the following article by Professor Lassen, and 

 which in order that no time should be lost in its circulation, we have already caused to 

 be published in the Newspapers of this Presidency. Such communications as Pro- 

 fessor Lassen's queries may elicit we shall be happy to publish without delay. — Eds.] 



1. A country which has hitherto not been explored, is Kandahar 

 and its neighbourhood ; the capital of Demetrius, called by his name 

 Demetrias, was situated in Arachosia, and it seems probable, that 

 coins of Demetrius will be found most numerously in that part of Af- 

 ghanistan, if Mr. Masson should have means for sending some qualifi- 

 ed person there* Another class of coins might also be chiefly expected 

 from Kandahar. Arachosia belonged, at least generally, to the empire 

 of the Arsacidse, who can only be supposed to have occasionally pos- 

 sessed parts of Kabul ; Parthian coins bearing a Greek legend on one 

 side and a Bactrian on the other, will probably have been struck only 

 by such kings, as ruled in Kabul and its neighbourhood. Vonones 

 (or by the native legend his son Vologases) is the only known Parthi- 

 an king, from whom we have as yet coins of the above description : 

 another name found on a coin published by Swinton is not legible ; a 

 new coin was lately edited by Mr. Millingan, having no Greek, only a 

 Bactrian legend, evidently an Arsacidan one, though not legible. It 

 would be of great importance to complete this Parthian series, because 

 the chronology of the Arsacidse might then be brought to bear on that 

 of the Indo-Scythians, 



2. From the country to the westward of Kabul and the sources of 

 the Kabul river, which the Chinese call by the name of Kissin, coins 

 of the first dynasty of Indo-Scythians may be expected chiefly, if the 

 researches could be extended to the neighbourhood of the Lake Yarah. 

 Segistan still bears the names of the first Indo-Scythians, who were 

 properly called Sacse, and their capital must have been somewhere in 

 Drangiana. Also the Greek king Artimachus appears from one of his 

 coins to have reigned near the Lake Yarah, and it would not be un- 

 reasonable to expect coins of him and his successors, (perhaps even 

 Greek monuments of other kinds,) from those tracts, if made accessible. 



3. The town Nagara, mentioned by Ptolemseus, with the Greek 

 surname of Dionysopolis, must have been the capital of some Greek 

 kingdom, probably of Agathocles and Pantalcon, who exhibit the 

 symbols of Dionysos on their coins. The Chinese mention Nakoloho 

 which is the same name, as the site of the flourishing Buddhist 

 establishment, about 400 years of our era in the Chinese place 



