1855.] Ancient Indian Numerals. 569 



forms of a symbol that may be compared to a j£ 9 all of these figures 

 will be found duly inserted in the plate. 



The Gupta coinage however, further presents us with a valuable 

 contribution in the symbol representing one hundred; hitherto, 

 amid the extensive range of inscriptions, coins and copper-plates, we 

 had discovered no single centesimal number except the perpetual 

 recurring three hundred. Were any confirmation of the coin testi- 

 mony required, it has been opportunely afforded by the Nasik 

 inscriptions, in No. IX. of which will be found a counterpart of our 

 Gupta one hundred. Dr. Stevenson failed to detect the correct 

 form of the figure, and expressed himself somewhat doubtfully as 

 to its value* and further hesitated to incorporate the sign into 

 his table of numbers. Still, to him is due the merit of first pub- 

 lication, to which I willingly bear testimony ! 



The outline of the numismatic cipher for 100 really assimilates 

 closely with that of the Bactro-Pali letter H, the lapidary form of 

 the symbol, however, is compared by Dr. Stevenson to a ^*. 



[Finally I have to advert to the symbol for three hundred, whose 

 frequent appearance had almost led me to distrust its correct inter- 

 pretation as such in all its positions,! until I met with the Gupta 



* Journ. Bombay B. R. A. S. July, 1853, p. 54. Dr. S. says, "The figure like 

 the ^ at the end of line 4th, I suspect to be a numeral for 100. 



f My doubts and difficulties on this head were freely stated in my paper of 1848, 

 to the following effect : 



" A consideration that undoubtedly tends to cause distrust in the conclusive- 

 ness of the decision, which assigns the value of 300 to all the known forms of the 

 symbol *T, arises from the circumstance of its appearing as the unvarying repre- 

 sentative of the hundreds on both the coins and inscriptions [the Multye plates, 

 J. A. S. B., VI. 870, may possibly prove an exception to this rule], and the singu- 

 lar coincidence which results from the facts that, among the many dated coins now 

 capable of citation, and the fair proportion of figure-dated copper-plate grants at 

 present known, not only must each and all, under this view of the case, be dated 

 in 300 and odd ; but likewise, strange to say, the same identical hundreds as found 

 on these different monuments must of necessity be referred to totally distinct 

 cycles, whose initial epochs are removed from each other by an interval of some 

 centuries at the very least. 



These observations lead naturally to the inquiry, whether, in the early stages of 

 progressive improvement iu notation, it may uot have been possible that, whereas 



4 J? % 



