DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15174#0399
382
MR. J. PRINSEp's NOTES
before us, and others of the same class, to the Sakyan
dynasty, to which the term Indo-Scythic very aptly
applies, we may reasonably follow up the same train by
ascribing the next series, which exhibit, on the reverse,
a Brahmani bull, accompanied by a priest in the common
Indian dhoti, as the coins of the Brahmanical dynasty,
which in its turn overcame tbe Buddhist line. Colonel
Tod includes these coins in the same class as the last,
and adduces his reasons for referring them to Mithri-
dates, or his successors, of Arsacidan dynasty, whose
dominions extended from the Indus to the Ganges, and
to whom Bactria was latterly tributary. Greek legends
" of the King of kings," &c. are visible on some ; and
what he supposes to be Pehlevi characters on the re-
verse ; but I incline to think these characters of the
Delhi type, and the Bactrian monogram should decide
their locality. Mr. Wilson and Schlegel both call them
Indo-Scythic; and the latter, with Colonel Tod, names
the figure " Siva, with his bull, Nandi." *
Mr. Schlegel thinks it curious, that such marks of
the Hindu faith should appear on these Tartar coins ;
but, considering the Indian origin of the Sacae, does
not this rather prove the same of their successors, in-
stead of their Tartar descent ? It is more curious that
the fire altar should continue on all of the devices; but
the fact of its being a fire altar at all, is still matter of
great uncertainty.
Figs. 19. 22, 23. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. The series of
small copper coins found near Manihydla, and generally
throughout Upper India, which have a head on the
* " Ce qui me parait la circonstance la plus remarquable
dans ces medailles, ce sont ces preuves du culte Brahmanique
adopte par les rois Tartares. lis regnaient done certainement
sur des provinces ou ce culte etait etabli."— Journal Asiatique,
Nov. 1828.
MR. J. PRINSEp's NOTES
before us, and others of the same class, to the Sakyan
dynasty, to which the term Indo-Scythic very aptly
applies, we may reasonably follow up the same train by
ascribing the next series, which exhibit, on the reverse,
a Brahmani bull, accompanied by a priest in the common
Indian dhoti, as the coins of the Brahmanical dynasty,
which in its turn overcame tbe Buddhist line. Colonel
Tod includes these coins in the same class as the last,
and adduces his reasons for referring them to Mithri-
dates, or his successors, of Arsacidan dynasty, whose
dominions extended from the Indus to the Ganges, and
to whom Bactria was latterly tributary. Greek legends
" of the King of kings," &c. are visible on some ; and
what he supposes to be Pehlevi characters on the re-
verse ; but I incline to think these characters of the
Delhi type, and the Bactrian monogram should decide
their locality. Mr. Wilson and Schlegel both call them
Indo-Scythic; and the latter, with Colonel Tod, names
the figure " Siva, with his bull, Nandi." *
Mr. Schlegel thinks it curious, that such marks of
the Hindu faith should appear on these Tartar coins ;
but, considering the Indian origin of the Sacae, does
not this rather prove the same of their successors, in-
stead of their Tartar descent ? It is more curious that
the fire altar should continue on all of the devices; but
the fact of its being a fire altar at all, is still matter of
great uncertainty.
Figs. 19. 22, 23. 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. The series of
small copper coins found near Manihydla, and generally
throughout Upper India, which have a head on the
* " Ce qui me parait la circonstance la plus remarquable
dans ces medailles, ce sont ces preuves du culte Brahmanique
adopte par les rois Tartares. lis regnaient done certainement
sur des provinces ou ce culte etait etabli."— Journal Asiatique,
Nov. 1828.