1894.] W. Theobald— Early Local Silver Coinages in N.-W. India. 77 
nection with the animal on the coins of the Kunindas, was Mr. Edward 
Thomas, who thus describes the animal in Journal , Royal Asiatic Society , 
Vol. I., New Series, page 441. 44 The central figure represents the con¬ 
ventional form of the sacred deer of the Buddhists. The horns are 
fancifully curved, and the tail is imitated from that of the Himalayan 
Yak.” I have in my above first-quoted paper disposed of the error Mr. 
Thomas here falls into, in describing the horns as “fancifully curved.” 
The two snakes, described as “fancifully curved,” are not horns and 
do not form part of the animal above which they are displayed. The 
tail is the tail of a 4 bovine ’ ruminant, as distinguished from that of 
the 4 cervine ’ ruminant, or deer, and there exists not the slightest ground 
for saying it is imitated from another animal than that represented on 
the coin. Zoologically considered, there is no great reason why the 
figure might not be intended for a Yak ; but as the 4 Yak ’ is not an 
inhabitant of the country in which the coin was current, the figure is 
probably meant for a buffalo, which it suits better than any other 
animal. Two silver coins and three copper coins, with the figure on 
them of the so-called 4 deer,’ are figured in the Coins of Ancient India , 
plate Y, page 70. The two silver coins are beautifully distinct and fully 
support my contention that the animal is no 4 deer.’ In both these 
coins the animal is seen in profile, with the head turned round so as 
to exhibit a pair of crescentic horns, and the tail moreover in both 
coins is long and bushy, reaching to the 4 hocks.’ No deer whatever has 
either crescentic horns or a tail reaching to its 4 hocks,’ whereas the 
design is a very spirited one of a buffalo, with its head lifted up, as is 
the manner of the beast when in a threatening or inquisitive mood, 
and we may even identify the animal as pertaining to the short-horned 
race of the 4 Arna bhainsa ,’ as distinguished from the long straight¬ 
horned race of Assam and the Eastern Provinces. 1 
1 There is also in the Panjab a straight-horned race of domestic buffalo 
(whose horns are sometimes loose and attached to the skin only), but these are a 
very degenerate breed, and not the type displayed on the coin. A buffalo head, 
however, of this type is seen on some Sassanian and Indo-Sassanian coins. The 
buffalo type cannot be mistaken, the convex forehead, knotty horns and square 
muzzle, and yet on a coin of Hormisdas III., it is merely described as “ nne tete de 
taureau,” by Longperier in his Essay on Sassanian Coins , page 59. If Mr. Thomas 
erred in not recognising the buffalo as the animal on the coins of the Kunindas, 
he committed a still more serious error when describing the helmet of the king on 
a coin of Huvishka as defended by buffalo s horns ( Jainism , pi. II, fig. 16.). 
Accepting Mr. Thomas’s statement that the helmet is defended by ‘ horns ; ’ yet 
how preposterous is the notion that buffalo’s horns could be so used ! A coin, 
identical no doubt with that before Mr. Thomas is in my possession, and on it the 
horns are arranged with their bases joined in front, or approximating, whilst the 
