202 
Fryer — Note on an Arakanese Coin. 
[No. 2, 
Buddhism had something in common ; for we see in them the Buddhist 
triglyph represented by the trident of Shiva. On each side is a scroll and 
beneath are certain round dots. These dots are curious, for they here occupy 
the same position in reference to the triglyph of Shiva that the guttte do 
to the triglyph of architecture,” and he called them symbolical coins, be- 
cause lie considered they represented “ whatever ideas they were intended 
to convey by means of pure symbolism alone, and afforded no clue by which 
to connect them with any particular prince.” 
The characters upon the coin now exhibited are too indistinct to admit 
of their being deciphered, but those upon Captain Latter’s are clear and well 
defined, and I trust to he able to show that they are not, as has been 
supposed, symbolical coins, but arc, in fact, records of an ancient dynasty of 
Araltan kings. The titles upon the obverse of Captain Latter’s coins, are 
here reproduced. 
a. b. c. 
Captain Latter considered “ (c) to represent the characteristics of the 
old Pali Alphabet with the exception of the first letter and may be read Sri 
Vrieghau. The other two may be determined by those better versed in the 
old Nagari character ; (b) is of a more ancient type than («), which last 
is of the same class as the characters comprising the inscription on the tem- 
ple of Shiva in the village of Darshi, described in the Society’s Journal, No. 
43, July, 1835.” 
With the exception of the final compound ndr in («) and {/>), which is 
probably modern, the characters seem to correspond with the Sanskrit of the 
fifth century A. D., as given in the table of modifications at p. 276, Vol. VII 
of the Journal, for 1838. 
Our Assistant Secretary, Pratapachandra Ghosh a, well-versed in Nagari 
characters, has proposed the following readings for these letters — (c) instead 
of Sri vrieghau , he would read Sri-vi-krama : ( b ) Sri-ta-candra : (a) Dham- 
ma-chandra. Thus two out of the three end in chandra. 
Captain Latter in his paper states, that a popular tradition is connected 
with these coins, which shortly is as follows : — a certain Arakan king, before 
setting out on a voyage to China, left with his wife a ring, and told her in 
case he did not return in seven years, she was to raise to the throne and 
marry any person whom it would fit. It fitted a herdsman whom she mar- 
ried, and who, in commemoration of his origin, put on these corns an ox and 
a goad (the trident). 
In Vol. XIII of the Journal, pp. 36, 37, Captain (now Sir Arthur) 
Phayre tells us in his 1 History of Arakan,’ that the monarch who set out for 
