1846.] The Symbolical Coins of Arakan. 239 



this emblem of " renovation and destruction," is conformably repre- 

 sented by the Bull Nandi, the peculiar cognizance of Shiva, the God of 

 " destruction and renovation." 



The two last coins are Shivite, but probably appertain to a time when 

 the emblems of the worship of Shiva, and those of Buddhism had 

 something in common. Struck perhaps by this similarity as well as 

 by their novelty, they seem to have been adopted by some of the 

 Princes of Arakan. The fact of the characters on them being Pali does 

 not in any way militate against this supposition, as the Burman Alpha- 

 bet is but a modification of the Pali, and the similarity of the two in- 

 creases in proportion to the earliness of the date. We see on these coins 

 the Buddhist triglyph represented by the trident of Shiva. On each side 

 is a scroll ; and beneath are certain round dots. These dots are curious, for 

 they here occupy the same position in reference to the triglyph of Shiva, 

 that the guttse do to the triglyph of architecture. In three coins in 

 my own possession, evidently of two different dies, their number is 

 " five." In another from the collection of Capt. Phayre, figured No. 3, 

 their number is "nine;" this last, however, is a peculiarly expres- 

 sive and powerful number in Buddhism. The legend over the Bull 

 varies in three coins, they are given separately, (a. b. c. No. 5,). (c) 

 presents the characteristics of the old Pali alphabet, with the exception 

 of the first letter ; I read it " Shri Vrieghau, the last member of the sym- 

 bol of the last vowel being effaced ; so that it appears to the eye 

 Vrieghe. The other two may be determined by those better versed in 

 the old Nagri character, {b) is of a more ancient type than (a) ; which 

 last is of the same class as the characters composing the inscription on 

 the temple of Shiva in the village of Harshi, described in the Society's 

 Journal, No. 43, July, 1835. 



The popular tradition connected with these coins is the following : 

 There was a king who set off to China to find the skull which he owned 

 in a former state of existence when he was in the body of a dog ; his 

 astrologers having told him that this skull being wedged into the cleft 

 of a tree was the reason why he was troubled with such incurable head- 

 aches, and that on removing it he would be cured. On his departure 

 he left with his wife a ring, and told her that in case he should not 

 come back in seven years, she was to raise to the throne, and marry 



