1854.] Coins of Indian Buddhist Satraps. 705 



Eut the date of General Court's tope may be fixed approximately 

 by the age of the Roman coins which formed the silver portion of 

 the deposit in the relic caskets. The dates of these coins, which 

 range from B. C. 73 to 33, fix the latter date as the limit of anti- 

 quity which can be claimed for the tope ; and as my date of B. C. 

 3 1 falls two years short of this, there is at least some probability 

 in favour of its correctness. The age of the great tope, opened 

 by General Ventura, may therefore be placed in B. C. 17 or a 

 little later. 



I am in possession of two other dated inscriptions of the Indo- 

 Scythians which I brought from the Yusafzai country in 1848. The 

 older of the two (No. 5 of the plate) is dated iu the year 333, 

 which being deducted from 477 gives 144 B. C. This is somewhat 

 earlier than the date of 126 B. 0. which is usually assigned to the 

 actual overthrow of the Lido-Grecian power by the Indo-Scythiaus. 

 The date is followed by the word Ghitrasa, which I take to be the 

 month of Chaitra. The other letters I cannot make out satis- 

 factorily, excepting a few in the middle which I read as miti 44. 



The other incription (No. 4 of the plate) is dated in the year 390 

 or B. C. 87, at which time we know that the Indo-Scythians were 

 in full possession of Kabul and the Punjab. The first line may be 

 read, with only a little hesitation as to the name, as follows : San 

 390, Srdvanasa mdsa sudi prathame Mahodayasa Gusliangasa raja*** 



The letters which I have read as Mahodayasa might perhaps be 

 read as Maharajasa : but the fact of the Gushang* dominion and 

 the date will still remain unaltered. The date is thus recorded : 

 " In the year 390, on the first day of the waning moon of the month 

 of Sravana." 



I will now say a few words regarding the religious belief of the 

 Indo-Scythian princes, which has already been the subject of con- 

 flicting opinions amongst the learned. Professor Eitter believed 

 that they were Buddhists, and that the topes of the Kabul valley 



* The Gushany of the inscriptions I identify with the Khushany and Kushany 

 of the coins, and with the Kieu-shaui/ (waggoners or coaches) of the Chinese. 

 And, as we find the Kanishka of the Rajah Tarangini become Kanerki on the, 

 coins, so do I believe that the Kushany or Gushany are rejuesented by the Gresk 

 KOPANO of the coins, and the x^Soj/atos of Ptolemy.. 



4 z 2 



