1873.] The Hon’ble E. C. Bay ley —Note on two Coins from Kamamblii. 111. 
tlialia jata mita 
I have consulted Babus Rajendralala Mitra, Pratapachandra Ghosh, and 
Sivaprasad as to the reading of this somewhat obscure compound. Admitting 
that “ tha” might be taken as the equivalent of “ tha,” and that again as 
the Prakrit representation of “ stha,” Babu Rajendralala nevertheless pre¬ 
fers to read the legend as written, and I am disposed to agree with him so 
far. He would take the syllable “ tha” as representing the little used 
word “ tha,” an idol; “ ha,” to break ; and, jata, ^<T for conquering 
or conqueror, with of course “ mita” for and would read the whole 
as “ the friend of the conqueror of the idol breaker, or the “ idol breaker 
conquering friend,” the latter construction being one used not uncommonly at 
the period which I have above assigned to this coin. Babu Pratapachandra 
Ghosh would prefer to read “ stha” for “ tha,” and the second letter as “ pa,” 
thus making the two first syllables “ stha pa,” for stha pa, which, taking 
“ stha” in the secondary of “ the world,” would of course enable them to be 
rendered as “ protector of the world ;” but the second letter is, I think, too 
plainly “ ha,” so that the reading of “ pa” is not admissible. 
Babu Sivaprasad prefers reading “jata” as “ jata,” born, quoting the 
parallel name of “ Ajatasatru,” a suggestion which may be well worth 
considering, the entire thus read might be translated as “ friend of him who 
was born an iconoclast.” Without expressing any preference for these read¬ 
ings, which I give only as suggestions, I leave the further discussion of this 
very interesting coin to Sanskrit scholars. 
Accepting, however, as is, I think, almost unavoidable, Rajendralala’s 
version of the two first syllables, the question naturally arises as to who “ the 
iconoclast” is, to whom they point. Genl. Cunningham considers that the 
earlier Buddhists admitted the use of at most only symbols of the deity, and 
rejected all representations or worship of Buddha personally. If that be so, 
the “ idol breaker” might well be one of the earlier Buddhist rulers or 
missionaries : in any case the term is curious as pointing thus early to a 
struggle against idolatrous worship. 
In the next place it seems to me that this curious and somewhat pon¬ 
derous combination of terms can hardly have been the actual name of any 
individual, but that it was more probably an assumed title, or synonym, 
perhaps that of some municipal functionary of Kausambhi. Babu Rajendra¬ 
lala has suggested as accounting for the use of the curious word ^r, that it 
might have been employed under a custom by which the first letter of 
a Hindu name is often that of the asterism under which he is born, and as 
cf is the letter for Leo, the name might indicate the birth oi its bearer 
under that asterism. If, however, it was an official title, this suggestion 
