18 E. H. C. WALSH ON 



the ordinary Newar coins. These are the damaru, a small double hand-drum, used by- 

 Lamas in dances and exorcising, and a loop of the following form 7T. The damaru 

 is usually made of the tops of two skulls fastened together. It has a leather thong, 

 with a knob at the end of it, attached to the middle of the drum, and, by turning the 

 drum quickly in the hand, the thong strikes each side of the drum alternately and 

 produces a noise like a rattle. It is peculiar to Tibetan Lamas and would, therefore, 

 not unnaturally suggest itself to Newar artificers as a suitable religious symbol for a 

 Tibetan coin, being distinct from the Newar Buddhist and Hindu symbols which they 

 affixed to their own coinage. 



This double drum occurs above the circle on the reverse of coins 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 

 with the loop to the left of it. In the other two (figs. 1 and 2) its place is taken by 

 part of the inscription. 



The loop also occurs at the top of the obverse of all the coins (figs. 1 



to 7) 



There are also certain other symbols round the margin of the coins which do not 



appear on the Dalai Lama's seal. One of these is the three dots within two wavy 



lines on the left-hand side of the reverse of these coins (Plates IV(A) and IV(B), figs. 1 



to 7) and in the symbol immediately below it, namely a dot inside an angle, and in 



the symbol at the bottom of the coin under the circle. As regards this last I would 



hazard a suggestion, for the reasons I give below, that it may be a conventional 



representation of the Potala, the Dalai Lama's Palace, which is the seat of the Tibetan 



Government. 



Kirkpatrick, in the account of his mission to the kingdom of Nepal in 1793, 

 writes : " The silver eight-anna piece, now called Mohr and Adheeda, was formerly de- 

 nominated Mehnder-Mulie, after the Prince who first struck it, and by treaty estab- 

 lished it in the neighbouring kingdom of Tibet ; this prince would appear to have 

 been one of the successors of Hur Sing Deo, and of the dynasty of Khatmanda, which 

 city is said to have exclusively enjoyed for some time the privilege of supplying Tibet 

 with coin, a privilege the more singular as it was from this very country that Nepal 

 obtained her silver bullion. The origin of this practice is ordinarily referred to the 

 superstitious reverence in which the valley of Nepal, and, more especially, the north- 

 west parts of it (highly celebrated for their sanctity) , has been wont to be held by the 

 spiritual sovereigns of Tibet ; but, whatever may have been the cause of it, there is 

 not a doubt that the present Nepal Government made the departure of the Tib- 

 etans from ancient usage in this respect, the pretext for the war which it waged about 

 four years ago against the confederated Lamas ; as evidently appears from a memo- 

 rial transmitted to me from Nepal on this subject, an extract of which is given in 

 Appendix No. II." 



' ' The Mehnder-Mulie exhibited anciently a representation of Lehassa on one side, 

 and, on the reverse, the name, titles and emblems of the reigning sovereign of Khat- 

 manda. Since the conquest of Nepal by Purthi Narain, no allusion to Lehassa has 

 been preserved, the Mohr bearing on one side the following inscription : Sri Sri Sri 

 Run Behauder Shah Dewa, and, on the other, Sri Sri Goorknath Sri Bhowani, with 



