1845.] of the Indo- Scythians. 441 



Mr. Tumour also identified them in 1836. In 1838, Professor Lassen 

 did not object to the identification of the names of Kanerki and Ka- 

 nishka ; nor even to that of Oerki (or Huirki) and Hushka: but he added 

 " besides the difficulties in chronology another reason from the coins 

 themselves is opposed to our recognizing Hushka and Kanishka in 

 Oerki and Kanerki. Both of them are described as Buddhists ; upon 

 the coins of the latter however a worship, entirely deviating from that 

 of the Buddhists, is distinctly obvious." 



The difficulties in chronology have, I think, been satisfactorily accom- 

 modated in my paper on the coinage of Kashmir already mentioned, 

 in which I showed that the Tartar prince Kanishka, according to both 

 Brahmanical and Buddhistical authorities, flourished at the beginning of 

 the Christian era ; agreeing with the age of the smaller Manikyala Tope 

 opened by General Court. In that Tope there was found a long inscrip- 

 tion of Maharaja Kanishka, accompanied with four gold coins of Ka- 

 nerki, and seven Roman silver coins ranging in date from b. c. 73 to 33. 

 The copper coins belonged to Kanerki himself, and to his immediate 

 predecessors Kadaphes of the Kuei-shang tribe, and Kadphises of the 

 Hieu-mi tribe. The Tope must have been erected posterior to b. c. 33, 

 and most probably after the death of Kanishka in about a. d. 25. 



The other difficulty has been successfully removed by the discovery 

 of the coins now published, which bear eminently characteristic Baud- 

 dha figures, emblems, and inscriptions. On the golden bust coins we 

 see the Prince himself represented with a halo round his head ; with 

 flames issuing from his shoulders, as sculptured on the figure of Buddha 

 discovered by Dr. Gerard, (J. A. S. Bengal, vol. 3, pi. 26, fig. 1,) and 

 with the prayer- cylinder (or dharmma-chakra) in his right hand; the 

 identical instrument which is in the hand of every Lama of the present 

 day. 



The knowledge of this fact, of the identity of the religion of these 



two princes, we owe chiefly to the science of Numismatology ; and the 



numismatist may proudly point to it as one of the many useful rays 



which the beacon of his favorite study has thrown over the treacherous 



quicksands of history. So true are the words of the poet, 



The medal, faithful to its charge of fame, 

 Through climes and ages bears each Prince's name. 



3 p 



