706 Coins of Indian Buddhist Satraps. [No. 7. 



were erected during the period of their sway. Professor Lassen, 

 on the contrary, was* opposed to the Buddhist origin of the Kabul 

 topes because the coins which are usually found in them bear Mi- 

 thraic types. t But as both Roman and Sassanian coins are also 

 found along with the relics, it is certain that the types of the coins 

 can have no connexion with the religion of the founders ; which 

 must therefore, be sought for by a closer examination of the other 

 objects. The most usual deposits in the Kabul topes were " caskets 

 or vases of copper, brass, or steatite, in one of which was generally 

 found a fragment or two of bone," which Masson believed to have 

 been the " essential relics over which the monuments were raised." J 

 In the larger vases were found burnt (decayed ?) pearls, beads, 

 rings, seals, and other trinkets with gems, coloured stones, pieces of 

 crystal, fragments of mother-of-pearl, &c. Only in three instances 

 did Masson find inscriptions " one scratched with a style around a 

 steatite vase, extracted from a tope at Darunta ; another written in 

 ink around an earthen vessel found in a tope at Hidda ; and a third 

 dotted on a brass vessel, within a tope at Kohwat." 



The nature of the objects discovered by Masson in the Kabul 

 topes is, in my opinion, quite sufficient to prove the Buddhistical 

 belief of their founders. For the Buddhists alone, of all the people 

 of India with whom we are acquainted, were in the habit of depo- 

 siting precious stones and metals with the relics of their holy 

 teachers. Thus we find it recorded in the Mahawanso,§ that 

 .Dutthagamini, king of Ceylon, after placing the relic casket in its 

 chamber, made an offering of all the royal ornaments then on his 

 person. This description satisfactorily accounts for the presence of 

 finger rings and other ornaments which Masson found in the topes 

 of Hidda, and which Lieut. Maisey and myself found in the topes 

 near Bhilsa. The usual practice, which is continued to the present 

 day amongst the Buddhists of Ladak, was to deposit a set of seven 



* I say was, because I am ignorant whether he still holds the same opinion. I 

 presume however, that his opinion has long since been changed. 



f See note, p. 184, of the English translation of Lassen's Points in the History 

 of the Greek and Indo- Scythian kings in Bactria, Kabul and India. 



X Ariana Antiqua, pp. 59, 60. 



§ Mahawanso, p. 190. 



