604 DESCRIPTION OF SELECT COINS. 



reads part of the inscription on the obverse NANOBA0OT -PKIKOY — 



and on the reverse MANAOBA. . . .TO, but he remarks that a greater 

 number of pieces and those in better preservation are necessary before 

 any attempt can be made to interpret the Greek and Indian inscriptions 

 observable on the Coins. He ascribes them, however, to Greek or 

 Asiatic Princes, who inherited the authority of Alexander's successors 

 in the countries watered by the Indus. 



With regard to the remarkable building at Manikyala, in or near which 

 these Coins were found, it was first visited by Mr. Elphinstone on his 

 return from his mission to Cabal. A plate of it is given in his work. On the 

 march from the Indus to the Hydaspes, a party from his camp set out on a 

 search for the remains of Taxila, the capital of Alexander's ally Taxiles, 

 or more correctly Taksha-sila*, the name of the Hindu city which 

 the late Colonel Wilford conjectured was situated in this direction. 

 The party met with no ruins or remains of an ancient city except this 

 building, resembling a cupola in its outline, but which proved to be a solid 

 structure on a low artificial mound. It was about seventy feet high, and 

 one hundred and fifty paces in circumference, cased in most parts with 

 stone, but in some parts apparently unfinished : some broad steps led to 

 the base which was encircled by a moulding about eight feet high. This 

 was surmounted by a perpendicular wall for about six feet from whence the 

 building continued in a spherical form. Mr. Elphinstone adds, "There 

 was nothing at all Hindoo in the appearance of this building. Most of the 

 party thought it decidedly Grecian. It was indeed as like Grecian archi- 

 tecture as any building which Europeans in remote parts of the country 

 could now construct by the hands of unpractised native builders." The 

 structure was termed by the natives, the Tope, the mound or tumulus of 

 Manikyala. No opportunity offered for any examination of the Tope or 



* Literally — Pierre de taille, as if the city was famous for iis stone buildings. 



