12 Dr. Hoernle —Antiquities from Central Asia. [Extra No. 1, 
included in the Chinese “Governor-Generalship” of the “Western 
Countries.” 8 It is true that there had been some political intercourse 
between China and Khotan since the days of the Emperor Wuti 
(140-87 B.C.) of the Earlier Han dynasty, but Khotan only lost 
its independence in 73 A D., when it was included in the Chinese 
“ Governor-Generalship” of the Western Countries. The Chinese cur¬ 
rency of Khotan cannot be placed earlier than that year. The native 
kings continued to reign under the Chinese supremacy, and this fact 
explains why the coins bear bilingual legends. It is distinctly a Chinese 
currency, because the standard of the coins is Chinese, inscribed in 
Chinese language and characters, and this fact clearly indicates Chinese 
supremacy. On the other hand, the reverse of the coins bears the 
symbols and names of the native kings, in native (Indian) characters,— 
a fact which indicates both that native kings still continued to reign, 
and that the language and characters, used by the native administration, 
were Indian. 
The first connection of India with Khotnn dntes back to the 
time of king A^oka (264-233 B.C.). Ancient Khotanese chronicles, 
quoted by Chinese writers, relate that the eldest son of that king, when 
dwelling in Taksa^la in the Panjab, had had his eyes put out, and the 
tribal chief who had been guilty of the outrage was banished, together 
with his tribe, across the Himalayas. There the tribe settled and 
later on chose a king from among themselves. Soon afterwards they 
came into collision with another tribe settled to the east of them, 
whose king had been expelled from his own country. In the result, 
the western or Indian tribe was conquered, and the eastern king, 
now uniting both tribes under his rule, established his capital in 
the middle of the country, at Khotan. 9 This must have been about 
240 B.C. The eastern tribe would seem to have been the Uighurs, 
of the Turk! race. They gradually occupied the whole of Eastern 
Turkestan before 200 B.C., being pushed forward from the north¬ 
east by the Hiungnu or Huns, another Turk! tribe. The latter, in 
their westward movement, displaced two Turk! tribes, the Yuechi (or 
Yueti) and the Uighur ; the former migrated to the north, the latter 
to the south of the Tian Shan mountains, displacing in their turn the 
Saka tribe which had formerly dwelled there. The Yuechi were 
gradually driven across the Ili and the Yaxartes. From 163 to 
126 B.C., they occupied the country between the latter river and the 
8 See Beal’s Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol. I, pp. 57 and 173 ; also 
Numismatic Chronicle, Vol. IX (1889), p. 272. 
9 See Abel Remusat’s Histoire de la Ville de Khotan, pp. 37, 38, and Beal’s 
Buddhist Records of the Western World, Vol, H, p. 310. 
