1855.] On the Epoch of the Gupta Dynasty. 889 



Shahpuhuri (<j> A ^«-^ otherwise written ^a^j ^«^) # and the word 

 is likewise found upon gems, in a position that clearly indicates its 

 "kingly meaning, f 



It is possible that the term had somewhat of a local currency in 

 Kerman, Seistan, &c. as distinguished from the Semitic Malk&. I 

 must add, however, that the Indo-Sassanian coins still retain the 

 Mailed in their Pehlavi legends, though the Sanskrit ^fif or "^Tf% 

 ShdJiiX is also found, in various shades of alphabetical development, 

 on some types of this mixed coinage.§ 



The only other point I have now to advert to, also very closely 

 concerns the G-uptas. Major CunniDgham remarks : — " The alpha^ 

 betical characters of the Saurashtra coins are so widely different 

 from those of the pillar and rock inscriptions, and at the same 



* Inscriptions at Nakshi Rustam, and Kerman Shah. De Sacy and Journal 

 Asiatique, XI. 653. 



f Ouseley Medals and Gems (Lou. 1801) J. R. A. S. XIII. 418. J. A. S. 

 B. III. PI. XXI. 10 and 11. PI. XXV. 6. A. A. XXI. 22, XXVII. 9. 



X Had Major Cunningham been better up in his subject, he would have found 

 a tempting argument, in the Daiva putra Shdhi, of the Allahabad inscription ; 

 which Prinsep erroneously supposed to refer to the Parthians on the strength of 

 the term EKXENOY2 0EHN, as found in the triple inscriptions at Naksh-i- Rustam 

 (De Sacy Memoires sur Div. Ant. de la Perse, p. 62, Ker Porter 548) ; but, 

 Prinsep might have seen from the text itself, that these terms are applied to the 

 Sassanian monarchs Bdbek, Ardeshir and Sapor , and have no reference whatever 

 to the Ardevan — the last of the Arsacidse — whose prostrate figure appears in the 

 sculptured group the inscription serves to illustrate. I am not however in a posi- 

 tion at this moment, to determine how much of this assumption of godlike descent, 

 by the early Sassanians, may have been derived from their predecessors' style of 

 imperial glorification. 



But all discussion on this head is rendered illusory, in the fact, that Prinsep 

 himself confesses, that " the two first letters [^^] are slightly obliterated, and 

 might be read either Ddbha or Ddra-putra. To judge, however, from the 

 author's own facsimile the second letter is far more like a *7 Bh, than a "3" V; 

 indeed, it differs materially in form from other well ascertained V's in the same 

 line. Nor do I think the proposal to read the second letter as T R, one whit 

 more admissible. As for his diphthong, it seems, from his own alphabet, attached 

 to the plate, that this can only be rendered as the vowel o — making the word ^T*? f 

 Dobha. See J. A. S. B. VI. p. 974. 



§ A. A. XVI. 18, XVII. 11, XXI. 20; J. A. S. B. V. pi. Hi. 3 ; J. R. A. S. 

 XII. p. 89. 



3 e 2 



