CJ m 1391 • T5 UC-NRLF 1 *B Mfc^ 17fl ^ f^u^UtC Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/epochofguptasOOthomrich C onte nl'S I Tnclo-Sccflhtan Coins wilk H ind i Lege ncl s . 3. Bilingual Coins of&ukharct THE EPOCH OF THE GUPTAS. By Edward Thomas, F.R.S. -?W, Joo mJ. ~f Royal d sicuhc So _ otherwise placed, but Jj= vy is frequent; Girnar, viii. 1, ix. 8. The Q~y_L o U- Bdhmana, Girnar, viii. 3, ought to dispose of any doubt on the subject. 2 Abu Rihan Muhammad bin Ahmad al Biruni al Khivdrizmi was born about a.h. 360, a.d. 970-1. He was an astronomer, geometrician, historian, and logician, under which latter claim he obtained the sobriquet of " Muhakkik" or "the exact," on account of the rigorous precision of his deductions. Abu-1 Fazl Baihaki, who lived about half a century after Al Biruni, says, " Bu Rihdn was beyond comparison superior to every man of his time in the art of composi- tion, in scholar-like accomplishments, and in knowledge of geometry and philosophy. He had, moreover, a most rigid regard for truth." And Rashidu-d din, in referring to the great writer from whom he has borrowed so much, says, ' ' The Master Abu Rihdn al Biruni excelled all his contemporaries in the sciences of philosophy, mathematics, and geometry. He entered the service of Mahmud bin Subuktigin, and in the course of his service he spent a long time in Hindustan, and learned the language of the country. Several of the provinces of India were visited by him. He was on friendly terms with many of the great and noble of that country, and so acquired an intimate knowledge of their books of philosophy, religion, and belief. The best and most excellent of all their books upon the arts and sciences is one resem- bling the work of Shaikh Rais Abu 'Ali ibn Sina {Avicenna). It is called Batakal, or in Arabic Batajal ; this book he translated into Arabic. From this work also he extracted a great deal which he made use of in his Kanun-i Mas' udi, a work upon mathematics and geometry, named after the Sultan Mas'ud. All that the sages of India have said about numbers, ages, and eras (tdwdrikh), has been exactly given by Abu Rihdn in his translation of the Batakal. He was indebted to the Sultan of Khwarizm for the opportunity of visiting India, for he was appointed by him to accompany the embassies which he sent to Mahmud of Ghazni. Al Farabi and Abu-1 Khair joined one of these embassies, but the famous Avicenna, who was invited to accompany them, refused to go, being, as it is hinted, averse to enter into controversy with Abu Rihan, with whom he differed on many points of science, and whose logical powers he feared to encounter. On the invitation of Mahmtid, Abu RiMn entered into his service, an invitation which Avicenna declined. It was in the suite of Mahmud and of bu i.ii Mas'ud that Abu Rihdn travelled into India, and he is reported to have stayed forty years there. He died in a.h. 430, a.d. 1038-9. (Sir H. Elliot's Historians of India.) THE EPOCII OF THE GUPTAS. 5 Indiens ' Sakakala,' est posterieure a celle de Vikramaditya de 135 ans. Saka est le nom d'un prince qui a regne sur les contrees situees entre l'lndus et la mer. Sa residence etait placed au centre de l'empire, dans la contree nominee Arya- vartha. Les Indiens le font naitre dans une classe autre que celle des Sakya ; quelques-uns pretendent qu'ii £tait Soudra et originaire de la ville de Mansoura. II y en a meme qui disent qu'il n'etait pas de race indienne, et qu'il tirait son origine des regions occidentales. Les peuples eurent beaucoup a souffrir de son despotisme, jusqu'a ce qu'il leur vint du secours de l'Orient. Vikramaditya marcha contre lui, mit son armee en deroute, et le tua sur le territoire de Korour, situe entre Moultan et le chateau de Louny. Cette epoque devint celebre, a cause de la joie que les peuples ressentirent de la mort de Saka, et on la choisit pour ere principalement chez les astronomes. . . . "Ballaba, qui a donne aussi son nom a une ere, etait prince de la ville de Ballaba, au midi de Anbalouara, a environ trente yodjanas de distance. L'ere de Ballaba est posterieure a celle de Saka de 241 ans. Pour s'en servir, on pose l'ere de Saka, et Ton en ote a la fois le cube de 6 (216) et le carre de 5 (25). Ce qui reste est l'ere de Ballaba. II sera question de cette ere en son lieu. Quant au Goupta- kala (ere des Gouptas), on entend par le mot goupta des gens qui, dit-on, etaient mecbants et puissants ; et l'ere qui porte leur nom est l'epoque de leur extermination. Apparemment, Ballaba suivit immediatement les Gouptas ; car l'ere des Gouptas commence aussi l'an 241 de l'ere de Saka. L'ere des astronomes commence l'an 587 de l'ere de Saka. C'est a cette ere qu'ont ete rapportees les tables Kanda Khataka, de Brahmagoupta. Cet ouvrage porte chez nous le titre de Arkancl. D'apres cela, en s'en tenant a l'an 400 de l'ere de Yezderdjed, on se trouve sous l'annee 1488 de l'ere de Sri-Harscha, l'an 1088 de l'ere de Vikramaditya, l'an 953 de l'ere de Saka, l'an 712 de l'ere de Ballaba et celle des Gouptas." . . . Albiruni goes on in effect to say : " Deja je me suis excuse sur l'imperfection de ce qui est dit ici, et j'ai averti que les resultats que je presente offraient Q THE EPOCH OF THE GUPTAS. quelque incertitude, vu les nombres qui excedent celui de cent." 1 — Journal Asiatique, 4me serie, torn. iv. (1844). 2 Objections have been taken as to the intrinsic probability of Albiruni's statement in regard to any conceivable system of reckoning from the date of a king's death. But the author was no novice, when he wrote his Tarikh-i-Hind. Some thirty years previously he had examined in detail all analo- gous instances and parallel conditions within his reach — of which the following is his own outline : " As regards the well-known date of his (the Prophet's) death, people do not like to date from the death of a prophet or a king, except the prophet be a liar, or the king an enemy, whose death people enjoy, and wish to make a festival of ; or he be one of those with whom a dynasty is extinguished, so that his followers among themselves make this date a memo- rial of him, and a mourning feast. But this latter case has only happened very seldom, e.g. the era of Alexander the Founder is reckoned from the time of his death, he having been considered as one of those from whom the era of the kings of the Chaldseans and the western kings was trans- ferred to the era of the Ptolemaean kings, of whom each is called Ptolemy. . . Therefore, those to whom the empire was transferred, dated from the time of his death, consider- 1 Albiruni, in another part of his work, attributes many of the complications and obscurities imported into Indian texts, to the prevailing system of reducing everything into verse, for the sake of the obvious facility of learning by heart, so often to the entire detriment of the sense of the original ; he adds, " J'ai reconnu, a mes depens, 1' inconvenient de cet usage." — Eeinaud, Mem. sur l'Inde, p. 334. Perhaps one of the most instructive expositions of the gradations of the process, under which the Indian art of memory was forced and matured, is to be found in Professor Haug's paper, presented to the Oriental Congress of London in 1874, p. 213. See also Caldwell, Dra vidian Grammar, p. x: who concludes his „ observations, " If they would cease to content themselves with learning by rote versified enigmas and harmonious platitudes," etc. 2 M. Eeinaud' s translation here quoted was based upon a confessedly imperfect transcript of the then unique but faulty Constantinople MS. of the Tarikh-i-Hind. It has frequently been called in question by those Indian commentators to whom its data came as a revelation from within their own citadels. As I had to a great extent accepted the value and importance of the information it conveyed, I sought the earliest opportunity of confirming or correcting its terms by the text of the new and more perfect manuscript of M. Schefer, which has been entrusted to Professor Sachau to aid his undertaking of a revised English translation of the work for the Oriental Translation Fund, which desirable object has been further encouraged by the grant of a sum of £300, for the publication of the original Arabic Text, on the part of II.M.'s Secretary of State for India. A full list of the variants obtained from this new MS. will be found in Mr. Burgess's Report, p. 29. THE EPOCH OF THE GUPTAS. 7 ing it as a joyful event. It is precisely the same in the case of the era of Y azdaji rd ben Shahryar. For the Magians date from the time of his death, because when he perished, the dynasty was extinguished. Therefore they dated from his death, mourning over him, and lamenting the downfall of their religion." — Albiruni y "Chronology of Ancient Na- tions," Prof. Sachau's Oriental Translation Fund edition, 1879, p. 35. As a fit supplement to the statements of Albirtini, I quote an instructive remnant of local tradition which comes to us from the Western coast. The tradition may be imperfect, 1 as such old-world tales are liable to become, but it contributes, from independent sources, curious confirmation of otherwise obscure portions of the history rescued from oblivion by the Muhammadan author. It further indicates the course of the immediate transfer of power, combined with an incidental reference to the conventional practice of Imperial delega- tion of authority to a son over outlying provinces, and like- wise furnishes us with a statement of the length of the reigns of two kings, to be found nowhere else. "The bards relate that Yala Rama Raja, son of Yala "Warsingji, reigned at Junagadh and Yanthali. . . . Rama Raja was of the Vala race. It is said in Saurashtra that, previous to the rise of the kingdom of Junagadh- Yanthali, Yalabhinagar was the capital of Gujarat. The rise of Yalabhi is thus told by the bards. ' The Grupta kings reigned between 1 As Professor Bhandarkar has criticised certain items of this tradition, I V desire to let him speak in his own words : " But the tradition itself, though interesting as giving the truth generally, cannot he considered to he true in the particulars. For, in the first place, it makes Chakrapani the son of Prandat, who is certainly the Chakrapalita son of Parnadatta of the Junagadh inscription {Journ. Bom. Br. B. As. Soc. vol. vii. pp. 122, 123, supra p. 4), viceroy of the father of Kumara Gupta, and grand- father of Skanda Gupta, while the inscription represents Parnadatta as Skanda Gupta's viceroy, and Chakrapalita as governor of a certain town, appointed to that place hy his own father. Again, Skanda Gupta is represented as a weak king in the tradition ; while his inscriptions, magniloquent though they are, do show that he must have been a powerful monarch. Lastly, Bhatarka is men- tioned as having assumed the title of King, while the Valabhi copper plates speak of him as Senapati, and represent Drona Sinha, his second son, to have first assumed that title {Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, vol. iv., Mr. Wathen and an unpublished grant of Guhasena). The tradition, therefore, is not entitled to any reliance as regards the particulars. It simply gives us what was known before, that the Valabhis succeeded the Guptas." — Indian Antiquary, 1874, p. 303. 8 THE EPOCH OF THE GUPTAS. the Ganges and Jamna rivers. One of these kings sent his son Kumara-pal Gupta to conquer Saurashtra, and placed his viceroy Chakrapani, son of Prandat, one of his Amirs, to reign as provincial governor in the city of Wamanasthali (the modern Wanthali). Kumara-pal now returned to his father's kingdom. His father reigned twenty-three years after the conquest of Saurashtra and then died, and Kumara- pala ascended the throne. Kumara-pal Gupta reigned twenty years and then died, and was succeeded by Skanda Gupta, but this king was of weak intellect. His Sendpati, Bhattaraka, who was of the Gehloti race, taking a strong army, came into Saurashtra, and made his rule firm there. Two years after this Skanda Gupta died. The Sendpati now assumed the title of King of Saurashtra, and, having placed a governor at Wamanasthali, founded the city of Yala- bhinagar. At this time the Gupta race were dethroned by foreign invaders. The Sendpati was a Gehlot, and his fore- fathers reigned at Ayodhya Nagari until displaced by the Gupta dynasty. After founding Yalabhi, he established his rule in Saurashtra, Kachh, Lat-desh, and Malwa." — Major J. W. Watson, Legends of Junagadh, Indian Antiquary, Nov. 1873, p. 312. The next item, in our preliminary evidence, is the deter- mination of the date of the Yalabhis' assertion of supremacy, which is contributed by a standard local inscription in the following terms : — " Inscription in the Devanagari character, in Puttun Somnath, on the coast of the saurashtra peninsula, fixing the era of the sovereigns of Balabhi, the Balhara Kings of Nehrwalla. u Adoration to the Lord of all, to the light of the universe (the sun-god Bal?), etc., etc. In the year of Mohummud 662, and in that of Yicrama 1320, and that of Srimad Balabhi 945, and the Siva-Singa Samvat 151, Sunday, the 13th (badi) of the month of Asar." — Tod? 8 Annals of Rajputana, vol. i. p. 801. Col. Tod goes on to say, " The importance of the discovery of these new eras has been descanted on in the Annals. S. 1320 — 945, the date of this inscription, = 375 of Yicrama for the first of the Balabhi era ; and 1320 — 151 gives 1169 for the establishment of the Siva-singa era — established by TIIE EPOCH OF THE GUPTAS. 9 the Gohils of the island of Deo, of which I have another memorial, dated 927 Balabhi Samvat." 1 * The bare outline of the genealogy of the Gupta family has been singularly well preserved, considering the limited range of their own proper inscriptions, and the persistent oblivion to which their successors would, perhaps, designedly have consigned them. 2 The earliest of these epigraphs, in point of time, is the Allahabad manifesto of Samudra Gupta, the fourth in succes- sion of an ancestry claiming little pretension to local position or ancient renown, and the second only, in the order of kings, who attained anything beyond restricted celebrity. This first heir to an imperial father took advantage of a ready pre- pared monolith to supplement, in the writing current in his day, an account of his own rise, in the form of a quasi- palimpsest, 3 subjoined to the original contemporary palaGO- graph in the old square lat character, in which Asoka, in the twenty-seventh year of his reign (b.c. 232), had proclaimed unwittingly — on the same stone — his undeveloped Buddhistic tendencies, and his advocacy of the more simple traditional Jaina doctrines of mercy to animals, the preservation of animal life and the alleviation of animal woes. 4 The second record of the Gupta succession, likewise per- petuated on stone, may be seen in the brief Mathura in- scription found in the Katra mound of the old city, wherein Samudra's parentage is apparently repeated in accordance with the tenour of the earlier monument. 5 The genealogy of the family is further extended in the inscription on the 1 Prinsep incidentally remarks, " The Balabhi era . . . from its locality and connection with the Samvat [Vikramaditya], must have been of the same construction, merely dating from a newly assumed epoch." — Useful Tables, p. 158. 2 " Le silence des Brahmans Test encore moins. Q'a ete leur maniere de se venger d'un souverain et d'une dynastie qui en somme leur furent hostiles, que de n'en pas parler du tout."— M. A. Barth, Revue Critique, 1874, p. 311. 3 Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vol. iii. p. 105 ; vol. vi. p. 978 ; Journ. Bom. Br. R. As. Soc. (revision by Bhau Daii), vol. ix. p. cxcvii; Prinsep's Essays, vol. i. p. 233. 4 "The Early Faith of Asoka," J.R.A.S. Vol. IX. p. 191; Ancient Indian Weights, International Numismata Orientalia, London, 1874, p. 27. 5 General Cunningham's Archaeological Report, vol. iii. plate xvi. No. 24, p. 37. 10 THE EPOCH OF THE GUPTAS. Bhitari lat or pillar in the district of Ghazipur, and its counterpart at Bihar, 1 which carries the succession down to Skanda Gupta and an unnamed heir. 2 From these inscriptions the recognized line of kings may- be restored after the following order : The Gupta Kings. 1. Maharaja Sri Gupta. 2. Maharaja Sri Ghatotkacha. 3. Mahdrdjddhirdja Sri Chandra Gupta. 4. „ Sri Samudra Gupta. 5. „ Sri Chandra Gupta II. 6. „ Sri Kumara Gupta. 7. „ Sri Skanda Gupta. 3 The dated Inscriptions of the race, either directly bearing upon their contemporary sovereignty or their posthumous era, may be arranged in the following order : 1 Cunningham's Archaeological Report, vol. i. pi. xvii. p. 38, and pi. xxx. p. 94; Journ. Bom. Br. R. As. Soc. 1871-2, p. 59; Bhau Daji's revised reading; also Rajendralala's remarks, J.A.S.B. 1866, p. 271. 2 Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 1836, p. 661 ; Prinsep's Essays, vol. i. p. 240. 3 The family tree, originally reconstructed by Dr. Mill (J.A.S.B. vol. iii. p. 344), may prove of importance in the present inquiry, as showing the moderately advanced position of the early members of the so-called regal line : — "1 Gupta. 2 Ghatotkacha. Lichchavi, a private Rajput, whose daughter was I 3 Chandra Gupta -Kumara Devi, Sanharika, an independent princess, wife of the king. whose daughter was h DA*''"'?' i& ^' 4 Samudra Gupta \ / J (*) A Queen, name unknown, . 4°*;^ Lit Raja and Sovereign J \ 1 ( 2 ) Devi, daughter of Mah&- v^ ■' . ,A ■" \i ^ ' daitva. V * ?\ K' • K ' 5 Chandra Gupta II. * , iv <>V fcA^ • 6 Kumara Gupta. " ^ ^^ 7 Skanda Gu P ta - Royal issue expected at the date of this inscription. ' See also my extracts from the Vishnu Purana, etc., p. 25, Burgess's Archaeological Report on Western India for 1874-5, together with the foot-notes, pp. 25 and 36. See further Vishnu Purana, Mr. Hall's edition, vol. iv. notes, pp. 222, 224. " Rulers fallen from their castes or Sudras will be princes of Saurashtra, Avanti," etc. This information accords with Major "Watson's tradition 'above quoted. THE EPOCH OF THE GUPTAS. 11 No. A. Inscription of Chandra Gupta II. 1 The short inscription at Udayagiri contains the name of Chandra Gupta under the title of " Parama-bhattdraka Nahardjddhi[rdja~]" and the date of Samvatsare 82 [in figures] 11th of the bright half of. 936 — a date within a single year of that which I originally suggested upon other evidence for the rise of Samanta. 2 Sir Edward Bayley considers that he can extend the series of the dates of the family from some better-preserved spe- cimens of the coins. For myself, I can see nothing beyond the oft-recurring 617, in various degrees of degradation, figures representing what I suppose to have been the dynastic date commemorating the uprising and success of the Brahman kings over the previous rulers of the Turki race. 3 1 See also the examples, Nos. 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, in pi. xix. Ariana Antiqua ; and Prinsep's Essays, pi. xxv. figs. 2, 4, 6, 7 ; Journ. As. S. B. vol. iv. pi. xxxvii. figs. 2, 4, 6, 7. 2 " a.d. 935."— J.R.A.S. Vol. IX. p. 179. 3 "Le dernier roi de cette dynastie fut Laktouzeman. [i^ ,&£ Katurdn Shah Kutour, etc.] Ce prince avait pour vizir un hrahmane nomine Kalhar des (Syala?). Ce vizir etait favorise par la fortune, et il trouva dans la terre tresors qui lui donnerent de la force et accrurent sa puissance. . . . Ensuite le vizir se laissa aller a la tentation d'etre maitre unique ... II s'empara done du trone et eut pour successeur le Brahme Samanda." — Albiruni, Reinaud, p. 153. THE EPOCH OP THE GUPTAS. 23 Gupta Coins. The coinage of a rising race of kings naturally precedes the inscription manifestations of their advanced success, and such seems to have been the law with the Gupta kings. In India it was the rule that outlying cultivators should be left comparatively undisturbed by the movements of hostile armies, but the cities with their guilds, though they surrendered the peasant to the tender mercies of local money- changers for their daily exchange, or for the values of their old hoards — demanded a fixed monetary standard upon which to base their own commercial dealings. So that the first duty of a conqueror, on his accession, involved the issue of a typical coin of definite value, usually emblazoned with his adopted symbols and devices, and, so to say, signed or stamped on its surface with his name and titles. The Gupta gold coinage, in its initial phase, under Gatot- kacha, closely follows that of the antecedent Indo-Scythian family of Yasudeva, etc. 1 The change in the leading devices, though sufficiently marked, really amounts to little beyond the substitution of a rather elegant standing figure of Parvati, with the exotic cornucopia, in the place of the counterpart seated goddess, who, however, soon re-appears in the former posture. The former device seems merely to have been an imitation of the standing form of the earlier APAOXPO (Ard-Ugra), which happily superseded the odious combination of Siva half - feminine (Arrdha-ndriswara), where Siva, man or woman, is represented as leaning on his Vdhana (or special vehicle) the bull Nandl? The monarch, however, in these cases retains the self- same attitude of casting incense into the conventional Mithraic altar on his right, while in the golden figure of 1 J.R.A.S. Vol. XII. o.s. Plate VI. Fig. 12, and IX. n.s. pp. 11 and 212 ; Ariana Antiqua, plate xiv. figs. 19, 20, pp. 416, 425; J. A. S. Beng. 1836, pi. 12 ; Arch. Eept. W. India, pp. 35, 36. 2 Ariana Antiqua 350. " The figure in many instances appears by the breasts and protuberant hips to be female ; but it is not invariably so, and is sometimes, what it probably always should be. an androgynous outline," 24 THE EPOCH OF THE GUPTAS. the sun, which, surmounts the standard pole on his left, he seems to affect a solar descent. In the legends themselves, all obscurity of fading Greek is definitively abandoned, in favour of the current largely- improved form of the Lat character which is characteristic of the Eastern Inscriptions of the family. The preliminary style and titles of the king on the obverse are indistinct, on the limited number of specimens available, but we are able to say that the term Mahdrdjddhirdja is not to be found in the record — but his name, or a portion of it, is clear in [ under the left arm. ^ cha J On the reverse, on the other hand, he proclaims himself ^RTTWt^Tf Sarvardjochchhetta, "exterminator of all Rajas." a title which appears in a more fully-defined form, on the pillar in Kumara Gupta's Inscription at Bhitari, which com- mences ^rj^T^rt^^ Sarvardjochchhettra, 1 a reading that seems to accord more nearly with Prinsep's first interpreta- tion of " Overshadower of all Kings." 2 This is, in a manner, what Ghatot Kacha says about himself and his pretensions to royalty — we need not, in this place, follow the gradual developments of the titular claims of his successors, until we come to Chandra Gupta II., who designates himself on his coins, as Sri Vikrama, Vikramdditya, and Sinha Vikrama? It is here important to note, that Wilford, who dug-out so much of the Indian old-world knowledge, and so patiently followed up the local traditions current in the land, during the earlier days of European contact with the unadulterated Native — who still retained intact his reverence for the legends and folklore of his race — in his essay on the subject, divided his prominent sections of the historical calendar, or the better 1 Gen. Cunningham's Arch. Pcept. vol. i. 1871, pi. xxx. 2 J.A.S.B. vol. v. p. 645. 3 J.R.A.S. XII. o.s. Plate V. Figs. 18, 25, 27, 30a, p. 75 ; Plate VI. Fig. 13 ; Plate VII. Figs. 1, 6, 7, 9 ; Prinsep's Essays, Plates xxiii. xxix. xxx. the same figs. ; vol. i. p. 383 ; Journal As. Soc. Bengal, vol. iv. pi. xxxix. ; vol. v. plates xxxvi. and xxxviii. the same figs, pages 360, etc. THE ErOCH OF THE GUPTAS. 25 defined eras, into four divisions ; his third era happens to bo fixed in a.d. 191, and is designated as that of Raja Yikrama. 1 Of course, it may prove to be a mere chance coincidence, but it is not the less strange, that this same period should so nearly correspond with the attainment or consolidation of imperialism by Chandra Gupta II. under the ordinary test of the Saka era, of 14 March, 78 a.d. In the subjoined Table, which is unaltered since its first publication, 2 except in the matter of the insertion of new data within itself, Chandra Gupta II. is ranged by his own epigraphic tests as reigning from about 161 a.d. to 200 a.d. So that his claim to be the Vikramaditya of a.d. 191, if ever such a king existed, can hardly be contested, and with it, must follow the acceptance of the Saka era as that employed in the contemporary annals of the Guptas. 3 The Gupta currencies, in the lands once held by the Indo-Scythians, followed their established standards in gold and less directly in copper. As the empire extended, they wisely adopted the silver medium of exchange, and the incidental types of the coinage of the several conquered provinces. It is in one section alone, however — that of the central division — that we discover consecutive figured dates, 1 Yfilford, As. Res. ix. ( 1 807). " In these different lists, the principal Eras are, the accession of Mahd Bali to the imperial throne, 355 years B.C., his death in 327, the massacre of the Imperial family in 315, and finally the expiation of Chanakya, 312 years B.C., and of these remarkable events I took particular notice, in my essay on the Gangetic provinces " [ix. pp.' 100 -101]. " The next remarkable era is that of Salivahana and the eldest Yikramaditya. . . " The third epoch is that of king Suraka, called also Aditya, and Raja Yikrama, who began his reign in the year 191. " The fourth era is that of Yikramaditya the son of Gandharupa, whose reign began in the year 441 " (pp. 138-9). " The third epoch in my list, and most of the lists in the eastern parts of India, is that of Suraka who was succeeded by his brother Krishna, according to the Pur anas. He began his reign in the year 191, and was also considered as a Yikramaditya, or rather a Samvatika, or author of a civil period" (Lx. 142). " The second Yikramaditya is the same with Sri Karna Deva, called also Sudraka and Suraka. . . It seems that he attempted to establish an era of his own, which however did not last long. . . These new eras were soon doomed to oblivion" (147). 2 ' Burgess, Arch. Report, Western India, p. 70. 3 It is curious that Jacobi, Buhler (Ind. Ant. vii. 80, and ix. 253), and Cunningham (ix. 19) should each, in their turn, have advocated an approximation to the year a.d. 194 for the commencement of the Gupta era. So that now we have a third alternative to debate upon. General Cunningham has, however, deserted this position in vol. x. p. 126, where Chandra Gupta II. is placed in a.d. 230 to 260. 26 THE EPOCH OF THE GUPTAS. which, coincide almost identically with the more formal returns of the same nature embodied in the engraved lithic and other Inscriptions. These two sources of information combined enable us to construct the following table of dates, covering the reigns of three kings, and ranging compactly from 82 to 146, which figures, estimated by the Saka era, which I still adhere to, correspond with the period of a.d. 161 to 225. Abstract of the Recorded Giqita Dates. 1 Names of Kings. Inscriptions. Coins. Tradition. Result, a.d., derived from the Saka Era. 1. Gupta 2. Ghatot Kacha 3. Chandra Gupta I. 4. Samudra Gupta 5. Chandra Gup tall. { : } 90 Eeigned 23 years after conquest of Saurashtra. 160-1 169 172 6. Kumara Gupta 96 126 r 90 the unit is illegible. 1 121 | 129 ? 200 208 ( 130 L130 Reigned 20 209 136 years. 138 217 7. Skanda Gupta J 140 ' 141 144 145 220 223 224 L 146 > Senapati Bhattaraka, two years before Skanda's 224-5 Vallabhis death. 319 The first even nominal Maharaja of the Yalabhis in the irregular dynastic lists is the third Senapati. The seventh ruler, in the same family order, seems to have been the earliest monarch of any real pretensions. 1 The New Inscriptions Nos. 3, 4, 6, 8, are quoted from General Cunningham's reports. THE ErOCH OF THE GUPTAS. 27 >ne of the weak points of the combination suggested in the above Table undoubtedly consists in the fact, that according to native epigraphic testimony, Skanda Gupta's death, in or about Saka 146 (a.d. 225), l constituted, with some sections of the surviving community, a memorial epoch of well-defined import. Whereas Albfruni's date of Saka 241 or 318-9 a.d., some ninety-four years later, is stated to mark the simulta- neous eradication of the Guptas and the initial date of the Yalabhis. It is true that Albiriini speaks doubtfully (jy\f ha 9 anna, as if, as though) 2 about the absolute identity of the two systems of reckoning ; but the continuity of the use of the self-same Saka era by the Yalabhis, as attested by the second Dharasena's inscriptions of 252 = 330 a.d. 3 and 272 = 350 a.d., 4 is very weighty evidence of the dominance of the serial era, at whatever point the dividing-line may be placed. We have, then, only to conclude that the Western assertion of power was delayed until it reached a certain stage of abiding security, which might not be far removed from the fixed point of 319 a.d. This supposition receives a certain amount of confirmation from the recent discovery of a grant of Dhruvasena I. dated approximately in Saka 216, or a.d. 294, when the "Valabhi kings [confessedly] were not entirely independent." 5 1 General Cunningham speaks of a coin of Skanda Gupta with the later date of 149. Arch. Report, x. p. 112. 2 The qualifying word is omitted in M. Shefer's MS. 3 Mr. J. F. Fleet, C.S., " Valabhi grant of Dharasena II.," I. A. Nov. 1879, p. 305. 4 Prof. Bhandarkar, Ind. Ant. 1872, p. 45. In this instance the writer has, seemingly, no more doubt about the universality of the use of the Saka era, than the native authority in Calcutta already referred to, p. 17 ante. See also his re- marks on the genealogy of the early members of the family at p. 17, Jan. 5, 1872. Dr. Buhler adds the date of 310 for Druvasena II. as well as 286 and 290 for Siladitya I. Ind. Ant. 1880, p. 238. See further Burgess, Eept. W. India, p. 80. 5 Dr. Buhler, who has paid great attention to the history of the Valabhis, after translating a grant of King Dhruvasena I., illustrates this point in a more direct manner, in his commentary on the text. An abstract of the tenour of the grant under its genealogical aspect, is to the following effect : " Hail . . . (there lived formerly) the illustrious Senapati Bhatarka, who obtained an empire through the matchless power of his friends, etc. . . . His son (was) the illustrious Senapati Dharasena. . . . His younger brother (was) the illustrious Maharaja Drona Simha . . . His younger brother (was) the great feudatory prince, the great chamberlain, the great general, the great Kdrtdkritika, the Maharaja, the illustrious Dhruvasena . . . 28 THE EPOCH OF THE GUPTAS. On the other hand, the unchanged retention of the date of Skanda Gupta's death, amid the minor divisions of his Eastern empire, and especially among the less-powerful survivors of the family, was only natural, and to them the rise and culmination of the distant sovereignty of the Yala- bhis was comparatively a matter of unseen and unfelt importance. Perhaps, after all, as suggested above, the survival of the era, either by the name of Gupta, or that of Yalabhi, was largely due to the joint terminal and initial years chancing to constitute a fixed epoch and a convenient subdivision in the better established and more widely-spread system of calculation by the Saka era of earlier date, so largely em- ployed by the astronomers : such as would naturally coincide with a combination of the 60 year cycle or 60 x 4 = 240 completed years of the Jovian Samvatsaras, with the leading test of the initial point of 14th March, 78 a.]). 1 "My own sign manual. On the 3rd lunar day of the dark half of Magha, Saravat 216." Dr. Buhler continues : " The value of the grant lies in its great age. None among the published plates go further back than to Dharasena II., the great- grandson of Bhatarka, while here we have a document proceeding from his third son. Its date, I think, disposes of the theory that the plates, being dated according to the Saka era (I. A. i. 45, 60, and iii. 235, 303), the beginning of the Yalabhi era, 318-19 a.d., coincides with the coronation of Dronasimha. For, as the first two signs of this grant 21(0), are perfectly certain, if dated in the Saka era (even allowing the last figure to be a 9), it could not be older than 297 a.d. Hence it would be dated twenty-one years before the Valabhi era. I refrain, therefore, for the present from any positive suggestion on the qncestio vexata to what era the dates of the grants really refer. Another interesting fact which this grant reveals is that up to Dhruvasena's time the Valabhi kings were not entirely independent, but that they continued to acknowledge some other sovereign as lord paramount. No independent ruler would assume the titles of Samanta, Pratihara, and Dandanayaka. It would seem that Dhrona- simha's coronation had not cut off the connexion of his house with the supreme power, but only altered its name." — I. Antiquary, 1875, p. 107. " 1 p. 5, note on p. 19, and Mr. Fergusson's article, J.R.A.S. Vol. XII. n.s. pp. 271-276. ffiDO-SCYTHIAN COINS, WITH HINDI LEGENDS. fyE .THOMAS. * *;£: When editing James Prinsep's Essays, m f 1858—1 was unable to add to his early lists of •"Indo-Scythic and Hindu link-coins," 1 or to advance beyond his highly suggestive readings of the " second series of imitations from the Ardokro type." 2 Since that period, however, I have never lost sight of the subject, and have lately had time to re-examine my old notes and facsimiles and been favoured with the additional advantage of referring to the recent acquisitions of Sir E. C. Bayley and Mr. A. Grant. In like manner, I have been permitted to study, somewhat at .my leisure, the large accumulations in the British Museum, which now include the old India House Collection. From these combined sources I have been able to compile the sub- joined list of coins, which will, I trust, materi- ally assist my fellow numismatists in their more ample and extended investigations in situ. 1 Plate xxii, page 227, Journal Asiatic £'oc Bengal. vol. IV, 1835, Plate xxxviii, page 630. 2 Plate xxx, page 376, Journal of the Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. V, 1856. Plate xxxviii, page 643. 4 One of the most curious results obtained in this direction, however, is the discovery of no less than four several tribal designations of the Indo- Scythians after their apparent establish- ment in India, which I must refer to in some detail, before I proceed to describe the coins themselves. I — The Sakas. The Sakas seem to have formed so recog- nised a part of the Indian body-politic, in olden days, that we find them noticed in three several passages in the Mahdbhdrata associated with various other tribes of more or less uncertain origin and geographical location. 3 M a n u, also gives them a place in his restricted survey of more central lands* and the Vislimt Pur ana pretends to define their serial succession, in relation to other apparently contemporaneous dynasties — to the effect that " after these [the Andhras] various races will reign ; as, 7 A b h i- ras, 10 G-ardabhilas, (Gardabhars), 16 Sakas, 8 Yavanas, 14 Tusharas (Tuk- haras), 5 * * * Then "Pauras will be kings for 300 years. When they are destroyed, the Kailakila Yavanas will be kin^s." 3 Quoted in Wilson's Vishnu Pur&na. Hall's Edition, vol. II, pp. 165, 171, 179. * Chapter X, Sec. 44 " K&mbojas, Yavanas, and Sakas. * Vishnu Purana, vol. IV, p. 202, see also pp. 2C5 note 1,203-9, &c. This is not the place to follow out, at largo, any of the curions coincidences, even this bare outline might suggest. But to revert to our numismatic documents, the number of mono - sjllabic_names_in this series is singularly signi- ficant, in pointing to a Non-Aryan or Turanian and q uasi- Chinese system of nomenclature. II — Kushans. Mr. H. RaAvlinson considers that the capital of the K u s h a n s, in the time of Alexander, was located at Nishapur — the then classical lovvia.* If so, this section of the tribe must have already moved downwards from one of their acknowledged centres at Kushan (Kabushan) on the Atreck — near which the first Arsakes established his new citadel, at Asa k-a b ad ('Ao-aa^). 7 We need not seek to follow the progress of the leading camps in their southern course, but may accept the main results, so far as their z'ecords on Indian soil extend. Their local inscriptions range geographically from Pinj- t a r, in the Yusaf zai country, 8 to the celebrated tope of Man iky a la, 9 and to the eastward, as far as M a t h u r a on the Jumna. 10 B J. R. A. 8. vol. XV, 0. S. p. 239. The J*" J* 1 of the Persians. 7 Isidore of Charax, chapter 11, J. R. A. 8oc. 1871, p. 445. 3 Cunningham Arch. Reports, vol. V, p. 61. 8 Prinsep's Essays, vol. I, p. 146. J0 X R. A. S, vol. XX, p. 251. Their aboriginal race and their language, in its adapted forms of writing, are also of the highest importance in the present enquiry. As to the former, modern testimony, severed from antiquarian tendencies — distinctly points to a simple identification of the K u _s h a n s with the tFguirs 11 (" Kaotchang rendu par Oueigour") . If we may accept this evidence as retrospective many of the difficulties still surrounding the decipherment and interpretation of the coin legends will disappear. But, on the other hand, there is still much that is necessarily vague and obscure in this direction. The Rev. J. Edkins, an acknowledged authority under the Chinese aspect, tells us : — " The Turks of Hi live in large cities, and have flourishing silk manufactures. They re- present the Weigurs of the middle ages, who, in their literature, employed, first a writing not yet deciphered : then the alpha- bet taught them by the Nestorians (and communicated afterwards to the Mongols), and last the Arabic." 12 From all that we can gather by the juxta- position of imitative coin legends, it would seem that the first official effort towards the creation of a special alphabet com m enced, in this 11 Mahometism en Chine, Paris, 1878, p. 7. Ibm Khordadbah, in the IXth century speaks of the king of Maverulnahr as still bearing the name of Kushan-shabu - — Journal Asiatique, 18G5, p. 41. ** The Phoenix, London July 1870, p. 5u $e, with a reproduction of the old Greek capital letters which had become fixed quan- tities, in so many of the mechanical traditions of the Eastern mints. The next onward move- ment seems to imply a parallel resort to the small capitals, or current Greek-hand, which was more likely to appeal in facility of expres- sion to the every-day transactions of a people who were only learning to write — the adoption of the Greek alphabet, in the first instance, by these untutored races must necessarily have been encouraged by the fact that the official language of their neighbours, the Parthians, was simply Greek, the use of which so largely intruded upon the language of the Romans in their eastern dominions. It is in this state of transition that we have to encounter the stray marginal legends of our coins couched in an unknown tongue — which we have still to seek to interpret. 13 Ill — Gadhia Branch. The designation of this section of the Scythic tribes seems to coincide, on the one part, with the opening portion of the name of G o n d o- phares the rONAO«£AP02 of the early Christian writers 1 * and the synonymous Goda-phara 13 The Sak&ri seems to have been a recognised dialect in India. See Muir, Sans. Texts, vol. II, pp. 65-50. 11 The Latin Gundoferus, Legenda Aurea, p. 33, Yule's Cathay, pp. 376-7. 8 of the Semitic version on the Baktrian coins. 15 On the other hand, the sept appellation appears to have been preserved in the conventional form of the Gadhia-p ysa of later times. So, also, Gadhia itself is affirmed to have been a cognomen of Vikramadity a, 16 and in like manner we have traces of the name in the tradi- tional Gund-gurli, on the Indus, 17 and may possi- bly extend identifications from other sources. IV— Shanda Branch. The last of the Scythian tribes we have to notice is the S h a n d h a s or K h a u d a s, for the initial is legitimately convertible into 13 — l-h . It is a matter worthy of notice, in this place, of how largely these intrusive races clung to the group of lingual or cerebral letters, which are understood so specially to belong to Tartar lan- guages. Bishop Caldwell stated the case, in the first instance, in the following terms : " None of the lingual consonants has ever been discovered in any of the primitive languages which are related to Sanskrit." 18 Mr. Norris,in deciphering the Scvthic tablets of Darius at Behistun, 15 Variously written Gadaphara, Gandaphrata, and Gudupha, Prinsep's Essays, vol. II, p. 214, PL xliii, fig. 15. Ariana Aniiqua, p. 340. 1,1 Auriana Antigua, p. 410, Prinsep's Essays, vol. I, p. 341, Jour. As. Soc. Bengal, 1835, p. 687 ; Asiatic Researches, vol. IX, p. 155. 17 Abbott, J. A. Soc. Bengal, 1854, pp. 152-8, 130-3, 145, and 1863, pp. 2-17. ia Comparative Grammar of South Indian Language*, 2nd Edit., Triibner, 1875, p. 32 ; see also Bopp's Qramma r, vol. I, p. 14 ; Burnouf, Yasni, p. cxlv. 9 placed upon record his conviction "that the sounds called cerebral are peculiar to the Tartar or Finnish class of languages ; that the really Indian languages are all of Tartar origin, or at least that their phonetic and grammatical affinities are Tartar." 19 Professor Benfey conceded that the mute " cerebrals have probably been introduced from the phonetic system of the Indian aborigines into Sanskrit." 20 Dr. Biihler, on the other hand, contends at some length against these conclusions, as also does Mr. Beames. 21 These objections are stated in full in Dr. Caldwell's 2nd Edition, 22 but they do not seem to have altogether carried convic- tion to his mind. Mr. John Muir has collected and criticised with his usual fairness, all that has been advanced for and against these varying theories. His resume will be found in the volume II. of his Sanskrit Texts published in 1871. 2S To return to our Tribal question : I find the solution in this instance ready done to my hand in Professor Wilson's translation of a portion 19 J. B. A. 8. vol. XV, pp.6, 19. Incidentally Moles- worth, in the preface to his MartitM Dictionary, p. xxii, says, '' Independently of the Arabic and Persian words which have found their way into the Marathi language * * it has two distinct lingual elements, the Scythian (or Turanian) and the Sanskrit." 20 Muir's Sanskrit Texts, vol. II, p. 460. 21 Madras Journal of Literature, 1864. pp. 116-136. 22 Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Lan~ guaqes of India. 23 ' Pp. 33u, 438, 440, 468, 4^- *-* 2. Tresor de Numismatique (Paris), Plate jrfu. Y^y~>*~~- LXXX., figs. 10-11 ; . (XZ. 'V^<~*** wxA -* 3. Burgess, Arch. Report, vol. II, 1874. Gupta / * ' v -^ t^^C^Cseries, No. 1. l~ Uyv^f^-^r Obverse. King standing to the front — with -^V. / 'jIUlcJL^ full suit of bossed armour. The right hand jf jr ^ q casts incense into a small Scythic altar, in the -I I !iHn-~-=» i background is seen a decorated trident, the left l^&_9~ dc-2/~~~hand rests on a standard adorned with flowing / ^^£~ •ifiJfc* ^^^"""pennons. Marginal legend, in Greek, a more 2i Vishnu Purdna. Hall's edit. vol. II, p. 163. 25 It will be remembered that Strabo has preserved the name of the Parni Dahae, Book xi. c. vii. 1 and viii. (J,C~ AA ~^ hTj^~A-' 2. Ptolemy vi. 10. 2. Tlapvoi — Aaai. See also Wilsoa, n cAt ^~ Ariana Antigua, p. 141. 11 or less imperfect rendering of tjie conventional standard inscription of PAO NANo PAO XOPANO ; Hindi legend in the field, to the left *r Bh, to the right ^ vasu. Reverse. Seated fig are of Parvati with a Roman cornucopia in the left, and a pasu or noose in tbe right hand. Scythic monogram (No. 160 Ariana Antique?) to the left : to the . iJ2 ' * right, in imperfect Greek APAOKPO, Aix^t-TIgra ^J^frft™*' (Ardha-Nfiri). t*x*Z? #U <^M^ I— Saka Branch. e~<^ £ .^ xxx. fig. 19, p. 376. n Jc- ^ ' VA ' Ariana Antiqua, PL xviii, figs. 27-28, p. 427. |-*7° Obverse. The name on these very numerous j/^* «/" - mintages may be variously rendered from the V* earliest f, fcocfc, to an apparent ^, £acft — the old Persian Lg ** kadi, king, lord ? — and onwards to f|", kidu, or ffF, kidara. The earlier renderings might be doubtfully associated with the celebra- ted Panjab king H d i. 29 Beyond the spear, % kashan. The nr n in these instances takes the form of the Allahabad and Kutila types of w, rather than the severe Asoka form noticed in No. 7. The letters to the right hand of the stand- ing figure near the small altar vary extensively, and no very definite classification can be arrived at at present. Ill— Gadaha Branch. 1 > 98 J. R. A. S. supra cit. Inscriptions IX, X, &c. ^ » J. A. S. B. 1863, p. 17. X 15 9. Gold, rare, unpublished. Coins in B. M. Obverse. Below the arm, a name very similar to those found on the coins classed under No. 8. There is, however, this marked distinction that an X, r, is inserted, in the central line, below the 3T k and above the ^ d, which would make the name appear as fa% /circlet, or ^i^ harcli. Outside the spear are the letters indicating the tribal name, which read ^, Gadaha. Letters to the right of the standing figure on a line with the small altar ^TUT, hshana ? The Jcsh is formed by joining the h to the sh, in line, and the cross of the k serves for its own definition, as well as the joint discrimination of the sh from an ordinary q*, p. In some cases these letters seem to read Kshadan. Reverse. Seated female figure, as usual. Mono- gram. "No. 162 Ariana Antiqua. Letters to the right %, yajpta ? IV — Shandhi Branch. No. 10. Gold. Common. Obverse. Below the arm J^T, Shandhi. Outside the spear *T, Basfokt ? Cu/ )T - ^ To the right of the standing figure 3f, j t ;f, n, &c. Reverse. As usual. No. 11. Gold. Rare. Obverse. Below the arm *r, Bhadra. i£ 16 frr Outside the spear, (uy,) ShandhL Reverse. As usual. [r ct^^^c^ V— Lower Gupta Branch. Nara (Gupta). t^Q-^^T The subjoined later Gupta coins may ,^,fiu * seem somewhat out of place in this Scythic , 7 A ~ ' series, but they bear upon the general system of the perpendicular definition of the Hindi alphabet in loco, and No. 13 has to be intro- duced, as a new piece, by a reproduction of its already published direct prototype. Ariana Antiqua. PI. xviii. 22 (3 coins in the British Museum.) No. 12. Gold. Rare. Obverse, King standing, to the front, with Garuda standard to the right, and bow in the left hand, general device similar to those of Samudra Gupta's 80 but greatly deteriorated in artistic execution. Below the left arm *^, Nura r between the legs ij, gu. Meverse. The usual type of Parvati seated on lotus leaves. Marginal legend. 3Tc5T!^T Baldditya. Vishnu (Gupta). No. 13. Gold. Rare. Ariana Antiqua, PI. xviii. fig. 24, (Willock Collection, India Office). 30 Ariana Antiqua, PI. xviii. Nos. 7, 8, 12. Marsden's Numismata Orientalia, Nos. ML and MLVII. Prinsep's Essays ; Burgess's Arch. Reports, vol. II, No. 4. 17 Obverse. Similar devices to No. 12. Below the arm, inside the bow'sr, Vishnu. at the bottom 17, gu at times ^ , h. Reverse. The usual device. Legend *${ ^f-j\s^I l)li *\ *^1, qui regna 30ans. D'e son temps le commerce de la toile et du froment fut tres-anime a Boukhara. On lui souniit, que dans d'autres pays on frappait de la monnaie d' argent. Alors il donna l'ordre de frapper de la monnaie d' argent Jin aussi a Boukhara \_,jf)j -Aj'b ^J^/ U^.f^^Jf ^ ji 3 U^^~ \fi J^]* Ce fut du temps du Khaliphe Abou-Bekr" (a.h. 1 1, a.d. 632). The Persian text goes on to say, that this coinage was continued unaltered up to the time of Harun al Rashid (a.h. 170, a.d. 786), when the inhabitants applied to his newly-appointed Governor of Khorasan, by name Ghitrlf (u-flJ^kc), for a reduction of the high standard of these coins, in order to meet the debased money current in the proximate province of Khwarism (Khiva). This new issue, which retained all the old numismatic forms and devices, is said to have been composed of a curious mixture of six different metals, which combination, however, had the unpopular property of speedily losing its pristine brightness. These new pieces received the name of the presiding Governor and were esti- mated, in the local markets, to be of the value of six to the pure silver dirhams previously current. BILINGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA. d ing original from which the Bukhara coins, now under review, were copied, reveals itself manifestly in the mintages of Yarahran V. In this obvious assignment, I find that M. Lerch has no more hesitation than myself. There is, however, this difference in our views, that he assumes that the imitative type described by me in the Num. Chron. for 1873, p. 240, No. 77 a— -which we both accept as the direct prototype of the Bukhara coins 1 — formed one of the ordinary, though degraded, series of the coins of Yarahran V. ; whereas, I am disposed to consider them as mintages improved upon the first crude camp-issues of Yarahran Chobin, as he grew in power. No. 1. — Plate YI. Fig. 1. Coin of Varahran Chobin before a.d. 578. 2 Obverse. — Head of Yarahran Chobin, similar in its typical details to the technical bust of Yarahran Y. The execution of the die is, however, very inferior to that of the earlier regal models, and the ornamentation of the dress, etc., is far less rich than that appertaining to his royal namesake, and the profile itself seems to point to an independent set of features. Legend, in very imperfect letters, reversed, and reading from the outside, from the front point of the crown. L-r>y?- i^jbjj "Yarahran of the mace." 3 1 Plauche xii. No. 16 de la collection . . . de M. de Bartholomaei publiee par M. Dora, sec. ed. St. Petersbourg, 1875 ; Third Oriental Congress, 1876, vol. ii. p. 422. 2 The autotype reproduction in Plate VI. is taken from a sulphur cast of Mr. Steuart's original coin engraved by his Italian artist, and reproduced in in Plate IX. Fig. 10, Vol. XIII. Num. Chron. 3 The mace was the special weapon of the heroes of the Shah Namah, and formed part of the ordinary equipment of the heavy cavalry of the Parthians and Persians. It was calculated to prove peculiarly effective against the chain armour of the period. Mahmud of Ghazni was celebrated for the use of the mace, and its ceremonial employment survives to this day in the "Chobddrs" of Indian native courts. 4 BILINGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA. Reverse. — Device closely following the design of Ya- rahran Y. Reverses, but of coarser execution. The head below the fire on the side of the altar is very prominent, and properly coincides with the outline of the leading profile on the obverse. Legend to the right, s», u^ ai, or possibly ^J\ am, An-Iran {i.e. Turan). to the left, p-», jj«** sin, China. Samarkand, be- fore the time of Shamar, was called Chin (Tabari, ii. 158). In my previous notice of this strange mintage, I ven- tured upon some speculations as to the motives which possibly prompted its production, and I preferred to sup- pose, that Yarahran Chobin, "on his return march with the plunder of Balkh, etc., at his disposal, utilized the avail- able silver in the form of crude camp-issues" (Num. Chron. Yol. XIII. p. 237). The simple narrative of the events attending his revolt, given by the Armenian author, Sepeos, 1 seems to confirm this view, with this addition, that we must conclude that the pieces in question were coined after his army had, so to say, compelled him to throw off his allegiance to Hormazd, but before he took upon himself regal titles. No. 2. — Coin of Varahran Chobin, advanced period, M. Bartholomaei's Plates xii. 16. Silver. Size 9 of Mionnet's scale. Obverse. — Head of the king to the right, with the con- 1 " Vahram Merhevandah dirigea contre les Thetals une guerre victorieuse, s'empara de Balkh et de tout le pays des Kouschans, et poussa au dela du grand fleuve Veh-Ehot (Oxus), jusqu'au lieu appele Kazbion. A la suite d'une victoire eclatante remportee sur le roi des Mazkouths, il le tua et fit sur ses terres un butin immense. La guerre termine, il envoya a la Porte une petite Sortion des tresors provenant du pillage, avec un rapport sur la victoire. Blesse e la mesquinerie du present, le roi donna l'ordre . . . d'exiger le butin entier. A cette nouvelle, l'armee se revolta contre Ormizd, proclama roi Vahram et" . . —Sepeos, quoted in Journal Asiatique,1866, p. 187. BILINGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA. 5 ventional castellated crown, surmounted by the usual half- moon and globe. Pehlvi legend. — j>V-*o^ 3*j ■»$■$ \»$4 j-^A Varahrdn, Ifalkdn-malkd Bagi Bdm-shatri. Reverse. — The national fire-altar and supporters armed with spears and wearing crowns similar to that of the king on the obverse, the half-moon is retained, but the surmounting globe is omitted. The altar presents this peculiarity, that the Ormazd's head, usually represented as rising out of the flames, is in these cases superseded by the head of the king in his proper person with his distinctive crown ; while the head itself is placed in the body of the upper part of the altar, immediately below the flames, and the legend on the margin seems to indicate a personal connexion with the monarch in the terms — "Yarahran'sFire." 1 Pehlvi jJj?>.u i-mjA Persian l£jJ>\ i^j^jj No. 3.— Plate YI. Fig. 2 is a coin of Yarahran Chobin issued after his accession in 578 a.d., in the first year of his reign — it is inserted in this place to show the contrast of the style of the imperial head-dress (Num. Chron. Yol. XIII. p. 240, No. 78) finally adopted by him. I now come to the special object of this communication. Oriental numismatists have, for long past, been acquainted with a coinage reaching India from the north of the Himalayan range, and of which specimens • cropped up 1 See Num. Chron. Vol. V. n.s. p. 50«. Rawlinson's Herodotus, vol. ii. p. 271, vol. iv. p. 332. "The Sacred Fire of the Parsis, at Udwada," Indian Antiquary, July, 1872, p. 213. Gibhon notices that the Tatar chief, who was converted by the Nestorians, " was indulged in the use of a portable altar." — Cap. xlvii. 6 MLLNGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA. occasionally in Russian and other Continental collections. 1 These coins are bilingual ; the Kufic legends, though of rude execution, and involved in the ornamentation of the device, were found to represent variously the names of £*s?* Muhammad and the authorized title of this son of the Khalif Al Mansur, viz. gr^ Al Mahdi, "The Directed." 2 The third alternating word I have only lately been able to decipher, and it proves to be ^1~> sannh/, "orthodox" (tradition), which, it will be seen, accords well with the position of Muhammad, Al Mahdi, in Khorasan, and pre- sents us with a curiously contemporaneous illustration of the great schism of the Moslem faith of Shi'ah and Sunni. See Plate VI. Figs. 4, 5, 6. The unknown characters forming the combined legend, but reading in the opposite direction — which had hitherto defied interpretation — were, as I have said, first read and explained by M. Lerch. No. 4. — The coin represented in the Plate, under Fig. 3, is inserted for the purpose of showing the link between the older specimens bearing exclusively Pehlvi legends and the first stage of the mixed or bilingual writing in Pehlvi and Bukhara letters — introductory to the supercession of the former by the Kufic characters in Figs. 4, 5, and 6. Traces of a portion of the Sassanian legend ijj^i-^4 Mazdesan bag I, may be seen at the back of the crown. 1 M. Lerch' s experience as to the localities of discovery of specimens of this class of coin is instructive. He says : " Autant que je sache elles se recontrent principalement dans des trouvailles faites dans les environs de Boukhara ; en second lieu aux environs de Samarkand. Enfin on en a rapporte des exem- plaires de Khojend et du Khiva. Les marchands houkhares les apportent souvent chez nous avec d'autres monnaies antiques trouvees dans le sol de leur pays. Mais jamais elles n'ont ete trouvees ni en Eussie ni en d'autres pays ordinairement si riches en monnaies orientales." — Report of Oriental Con- gress at St. Petersbourg, p. 423. 2 The Kufic coins of Bokhara dated in a.h. 143 (a.d. 760-1) give both the name and title of this Khalif, thus^*^ ^3 Xi^sz^j+^i] ^j&^d] Sunniy variety. Legend )Cyjd))"*^C)*)J} reading downwards from the top of the crown. Transcript in Hebrew IKTTIIPI IKIPTia, in Persian letters jbJy* Jy*£ . 2 Some of the better examples continue the lower curve of the final u, and embody the outlying dot with that letter — thus fully authorizing the reading of Khiidddd. Legend, in Kafic, reading to the left, from the other side of the top of the crown. Variously, 1st *x*s*, 2nd c^f*^, 3rd ci-j. Reverse. — Fire-altar in outline, with the king's head below the flame, filling-in the upper part of the altar, as in the prototypes (Nos. 1, 3). The supporters hold the con- ventional spears. No legends. The reverse devices of this triple series or group of coins vary both in artistic execution and the degrees of successful imitation of the originals, to a far greater extent than is the case with the obverse design — which seems to indicate either a very extended fabrication of these pieces, or per- 1 References : — Frsehn, Die Ifunzen, PL xvi. figs. N and 2 ; Major Hay, Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. ix. (1840), p. 539, figs. 6, 7, Plate iii. ; Prinsep's Essays, vol. ii. p. 117 ; Stickel, Orient alische Miinzcabinet zu Je»a (1870), p. 121 and Plate No. 90. M. Tiesenhausen, Collection of M. le Comte S. Stroganoff, St. Petersbourg, 1880, pi. i. figs. 5, 6. 2 I prefer the p to b both for palaBographic derivation reasons and for the coincidence of the Chinese pronunciation of the name, see Hiuen Thsang, iii. 282. Balkh, in like manner is Poho or Poholo, p. 29 ; D'Ohsson, i. 5. 4 8 BILINGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA. haps a prolonged adherence to a popular device, which is now seen to have carried with it a recognized commercial value. 1 The original legend, now restored to its primary mean- ing, is highly suggestive, in reproducing in its elements a very archaic form of the old Aryan (Tajik) 2 title of God and King — which is composed of two Persian words j^ khud or *A«>^ Qa-ddta, "cr£e par soi meme," 3 and in the Sanskrit ^ swa, c^tT datta, "self- given." 4 The latter portion of the term comes home to us, in the names of Miihrsidates, Tiridates and other parallel compounds ; while the primitive Persian title, in its sub- dued sense of " Prince," has lately made itself known to the European world, as the prefix to the personal designa- tion of the Kliedive (ySs^). 5 The local transcription seems to have retained the final xt in \ j^ khuda, and M. Yambery informs me that the current speech of the day equally gives expression to the concluding sound. One of the most interesting questions connected with these coins is the palseographic associations of their 1 The maintenance of the current values and incidental forms of the local money constituted a very important item, not only to the populace, hut in the estimate of Revenues due from each province. See my Sassanian Coins, p. 90 ; Num. Chron. Vol. XIII. p. 247 ; Ouseley's Oriental Geography, p. 258 ; Istakhri, text, 1870, pp. 314, 323 ; Journal Asiatique, 1862, p. 179, and 1865, p. 248. 2 Major Wood, " Oxus," 1872, p. 141, says, "Tajik, a Caucasian race whom I believe to he the indigenous inhabitants of Persia." Mr. Shaw, in the Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1876, p. 139, remarks that, "the Tajiks form the substratum of the population all over Western Turkistan, where, as well as in Persia, the Iranians are intermixed with and dominated over by Turkish tribes. To us the Tajiks represent the earliest inhabitants of the regions occupied by them." 3 Bopp, French edition, vol. i. p. 86. 4 So also, Svayam-bhu and Atma-bhu, " self -existent." 5 This title was frequently employed at Dehli in speaking of the reign- ing sovereign. Budaoni, vol. l. p. 3 1 3, in noticing the death of Bahlol Lodi, has, jy.£j Lli ^,^^- (^l^-S CSb* ^=>- . BILINGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA. 9 legends which may be formulated — thus, do these strange characters, which embody the sounds of Bukhara Khud- ddo, represent the original letters of the ancient Soghdian alphabet, as M. Lerch is inclined to suppose, 1 or are they the outcome of a hybrid collection of symbols from con- current and more recent systems of writing ? My own impressions are still in favour of the latter theory. On my first examination of this class of coin in 1858, I re- marked that their "alphabetical devices" seemed "to per- tain to more westerly nations, though the sites of discovery connect them with the Central Asian types," enumerated in the conjoint classification, 2 and I further remarked upon the fact, "that the forms of the letters" gave "it (the alphabet) a decidedly Phoenician aspect." This ver- dict must remain unimpaired with regard to the 1st, 2nd, 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and 11th letters of the legend, con- sisting of eleven letters in all ; the two compound letters doing duty for y*> hit or «: khu have the second conjunct letter identical in form with the other j it's. So that we have virtually only two characters remaining to ac- count for, i.e. the triangular letter which constitutes the & in j& and the reversed form of j u which represents the \ = a. Whatever may have been the derivation of this letter & , its combination with j to form the equiva- lent of the later Arabic + points to Pehlvi teaching and acknowledged conventional practice ; and its appearance on these pieces indicates a certain amount of imitation of the system of Pehlvi orthography in use upon their prototypes. There is a letter very similar to this triangular & h, which stands for an * = i in Aramaean — in Gesenius' Table 1 " Quant aux caracteres inconnus de 1' inscription je pense qu'il sera le meilleur de les nommer ' soghdiens' " (p. 429). 2 Prinsep's Essays, vol. ii. p. 116. 10 BILINGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA. No. IV., 1 and a nearly similar form is given to the same letter in the Due de Luynes* Alphabets, PI. xi. a. Prinsep's Essays. The + kh may after all have been represented in the anomalous conversion of sounds by in or eu. It will be seen from the Aryan titles, quoted above, that the definition of the equivalent of £ was altogether inde- terminate ; and a like difficulty, in regard to the kh, still exists among the Turks in their pronunciation of such names as Tophana and Hiva, The peculiar shape of the a, in its backward curve, reminds us of the Syriac defi- nition of that letter, and the earliest type of that character on the stele of Mesha (the Ifoabite Stone), with the omission of its down-stroke, might well have formed the model upon which many early varieties were designed and im- proved upon. There are other coincidences to be detected in this system of writing, which seem to connect it with Syrian (pre-Nestorian 2 ) teachings, 3 the fuller examination of which may be reserved for a future opportunity. 1 Carpentras Insc. 1st cent. a.d. See also F. Lenormant (Paris, 1872), vol. i. pi. xi. Alphabet Arameen des Papyrus, and plates xii. to xiii., xv., xvi., as well as Dr. J. Euting's Tables, Strasbourg, 1877. 2 " Our attention is naturally drawn, in the first place, to the contemporary Syriac literature, hut the reports of the Nestorian missionaries, who went forth preaching Christianity throughout the Sassanian empire and beyond its northern and eastern boundaries, are lost, with the exception of a single one (Elias, Bishop of Mukan). Besides, the same Nestorians, and before them the orthodox Eastern Church, established the Christian communities scattered through nearly the whole of Persia, the head of which was the Jathelik (Catholicus) of Seleucia, and founded a literature for their Persian converts, a literature of translations, a few leaves of which, if extant, would afford us quite unlooked-for elucidations, because they were probably written in Syriac characters, if we consider the testimony of Epiphanius, Adv. Haeres, 66. . . . As this literature has not been noticed anywhere, I shall here produce my ? roofs, specifying no less than three authors who translated Syriac works into 'ersian for the Christians of the Sassanian empire. (1) Ma'na Jathelik of Seleucia a.d. 420. (2) Acacius, appointed Jathelik in a.d. 485, officiated as ambassador of Feroz to the court of Zeno. (3) Job, who flourished about a.d. 550, a Nestorian monk from Hardashir A great many of the writers and chief authorities for the Eastern Church were native Persians, several of them converts from the Zoroastrian creed." — Dr. E. Sachau, Journal Royal Asiatic Society, vol. iv..p. 230. 3 Gibbon, cap. xlvii. vol. v, p. 259, edition of 1867. BILINGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA. 11 Albiriini tells us that the whole stock of the primitive literature of Kharizm was utterly destroyed, root and branch, by Kotaibah bin Muslim — even as the Khalif O'mar, on the other extremity of the Arab conquests, sanctioned the conflagration of the Library of Alexandria. 1 If this eradication of all ancient records, and the coinci- dent extermination of the living exponents of traditional lore, was practically carried out, to the extent the Kha- rizmian author would imply — we can well understand and account for the necessity of a reconstruction of alphabets — partaking alike of what had been preserved and recovered from local sources, re-adjusted to the advanced spread of independent forms of writing and intermixture of speech. Albiruni's invaluable notices of local traditions, with his personal confirmation of their credibility and virtual authenticity, are here reproduced from the new English version of the Arabic text, which latter was reduced to writing so long ago as a.h. 390=a.d. 1000. "Kutaiba bin Muslim had extinguished and ruined in every possible way all those who knew how to write and to read the Khwarizmi writing, 2 who knew the history of the country, and who studied their sciences. In con- sequence these things are involved in so much obscurity, that it is impossible to obtain an accurate knowledge of the history of the country since the time of Islam (not to speak of pre-Muhammadan times)." And again : "For after Kutaiba bin Muslim Albahili had killed their learned men and priests, and had burned their books and writings, 1 Ockley, "History of the Saracens," a.h. 21=a.d. 641, under M Omar." Abu'l Faraje, Pocock, 114. Gibbon, cap. li. 2 Albirfini describes the Khwarizmians as"a branch of the great tree of the Persian nation " (p. 57). Professor Sachau incidentally remarks (p. vi) that "the author had learned the subject from hearsay among a population which was then on the eve of dying out." 12 BILINGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA. they became entirely illiterate (forgot writing and read- ing), and relied in every knowledge or science which they required solely upon memory." l The determination of the circumstances under which the several names of Muhammad, al Mahdi and the ^~a or "orthodox" substitution appear on these coins, is suffi- ciently illustrated and explained in the following extracts from the Persian version of the Chronicle of the historian Tabari :— "Apres l'affaire des Eawendiens, Mangour (envoya dans le Khorasan) son fils Mo'hammed, a qui il donna le sur- nom de Mahdi, en le designant comme son successeur au trone. * * * * "Mo'hammed, fils d'Abdallah, avait pris le surnom de Mahdi ; il disait a ses adherents qu'il £tait le Mahdi de to famille de Mohatmned, et que son frere Ibrahim e*tait le Hddi. Or, lorsque Mancour fit reconnaitre son fils comme son successeur au trone, il lui donna egalement le surnom de Mahdi, disant : C'est mon fils et non le fils d'Abdallah bin Hassan [fils d' 'Ali, fils d'Abu Talib], qui est le Mahdi, de la famille de Mo'hammed." 2 "Depuis que Mancour etait monte sur le trone, il cherchait a decouvrir le sejour de Mo'hammed et d'Ibrahim fils d' 'Abdallah, fils de 'Hasan." * * " Or ceux-ci se cachaient tantot a la Mecque, tantot en Egypte ou dans 1' 'Iraq, en faisant de la propagande en vue des droits de leur famille, et ils avaient des missionnaires dans le Khorasan." * * " Abu- 'Aoun, governeur du Khorasan, annonga a Mancour que les partisans de Mo'hammed fils d' 'Abdallah devenaient 1 Albirimi, "Chronology of Ancient Nations," translated from the original Arabic, by Dr. E. Sachau, for the " Oriental Translation Fund" (London, 1879, W. H. Allen and Co.), pp. 42-58. 2 Tabari, Oriental Translation Fund, Zotenberg, vol. iv. pp. 375, 382, 392, See also Masaudi (French edition, vol. vi. p. 209, and vol. viii. p. 293). BILINGUAL COINS OF BUKHARA, 13 de plus en plus nombreux dans sa province et qu'un soulevement etait a craindre, ,, [Muhammad was killed in 1 45 A.H. , and Ibrahim fell in action shortly afterwards.] No. 6.— Plate VI. Fig. 7. Coin of 'AH Sulaiman. Obverse. Sassanian head, in outline. Kufic legend, toy] U* t^ ah MflKl 5 &7*g AM I £ ,* o uA General Library LD 21-50m-8,'57 University of California (,C8481sl0)476 Berkeley 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewals only: Tel. No. 642-3405 Renewals may be made 4 days prior to date due. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. REC'D LD tM-C-6 71-8PH9 LD21A-40ro-8,'71 (P6572sl0)476-A-32 General Library University of California Berkeley