16 
Dr. Hoernle— Antiquities from Central Asia. [Extra No. 1, 
severance of the Indian connection of the Uighur kingdom of Khotan, 
the use of the official Kharosthi script survived for any great length 
of time. Its forms, as seen in the Dutreil de Rhins Manuscript and on 
the Indo-Chinese coins, are much alike, and both are identical with that 
form of it which prevailed under the Kushana (Yuechi) kings in India, 
that is, in the first and second centuries A.D. Though its form remained 
practically unchanged for a century or two longer in its home-land, 
it is very improbable, to judge from the parallel case of the lndian- 
Brahmi, that this would have been the case in a foreign country like 
Khotan. It is not probable, therefore, that the Indo-Chinese coins 
can be placed later than the end of the second century A.D. They 
show, as already remarked, four, if not five, different regal names. 
Four or five reigns, at an average of 20 or 25 years, occupy a period of 
about 100 years. This brings ns to, at least, the year 173 A.D., as none 
of the coins can have been struck before 73 A.D. The initial date is 
certain; the terminal date must be near the end of the second 
century. The period 73-200 A.D., therefore, is a safe date to give to 
the Indo-Chinese coins of Khotan. 
Within that period, the Chinese records mention the names of 
four or five kings of Khotan: ( 1 ) Kuang-te in 73 A.D., who first 
submitted his country to the overlordship of the Chinese; (2) Tang - 
t'sian in 129-131 A.D., (3) Kian , (4) ’An-kue, son of Kian , who suc¬ 
ceeded his father in 152 A.D., and (5) Sliansie in 220-226 A.D. 82 None 
of these names agrees with any of those on the coins ; but they rather 
look like true Chinese names, so that it would seem that the kings bore 
duplicate names, native Turki and Chinese. At that early period, as 
the Chinese relate, the kings of Khotan were devoted Buddhists, and as 
such, it may be surmised that they bore names which were the Uighur 
equivalents of Indian Buddhistic terms. Dharma being a common 
prefix of many Buddhistic names, Gugra might be its Uighur equi¬ 
valent. A long list of ancient Khotanese royal names, all beginning with 
Vijaya , is given by Rai Sarat Chandra Das from Tibetan sources. 28 If 
this list can be trusted, Gugra might represent Vijaya. 
II. Chinese Coins. 
My knowledge of Chinese is very small, and the only numismatic 
aid, available to me, is the Catalogue of Chinese Coins in the British 
Museum 1 by Dr. Terrien de Lacouperie, and an article on Chinese Coin¬ 
age in the Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic 
22 See Abel Remnsat’s Histoire de la Ville de Khotan, pp. 3, 6, 8, 15, 17. 
23 See Journal, Asiat. 8oc. Beng., Vol, VI (1886), pp. 197, 198. 
