Chapter I (2)

The demand for Indian goods in Bokhara is steady. Dacca muslins of the larger sort sell for twenty tillas per score, the smaller being half the price. There are about five hundred pieces of Benares brocade (kincob), imported yearly: that from Guzerat is too expensive. The whole of the natives of Bokhara and Toorkistan wear turbans of white cloth which are imported from the Punjab: they are about thirty yards long and a foot broad, and sell for a tilla each. They are in universal use among both sexes, and might be manufactured in Europe, and sent with advantage into Toorkistan. The shawl trade is only one of transit: it is not considerable. Two lacs of rupees worth of shawl goods have passed to Russia within the last year (1832). There is never more than double this sum risked in the trade. The number of pairs of shawls varies from one hundred and twenty, to three hundred; but they must be of the finest texture, since none others will bring a price in Russia. Several natives of the valley of Cashmere, have from time to time repaired to Russia; and the shawl fine-drawers, or “rufoogurs,” sometimes alter the patterns of the shawl to suit the taste of the purchasers, who, by all accounts, are not a little fastidious. The passion for shawls among the Russian nobles is great, and will account for the exorbitant prices given for them, to which I have before alluded. The greatest import from India is indigo, which averages five hundred camel-loads a year. A portion of it is again exported to Yarkund, in the Chinese territories; where, though the plant is found, they are ignorant of the means of preparing it. The sugar of India is also brought into Toorkistan, for the cane does not grow in Bokhara. The China sugar, brought by way of Bombay, will not bear the expense of a journey beyond Cabool; nor can the Chinese themselves send it further than Yarkund, for the same reason. This coarse sugar has not a very great sale, for the richer people use the refined loaf-sugar of Russia; and the poorer classes employ the “turunjbeen,” a saccharine substance, gathered like manna, which is found in this country, and which I have mentioned in the account of Bokhara.

~Trade with China.~

~Trade with Persia.~

Besides the Russian and British Indian trade, Bokhara carries on an extensive and direct commercial intercourse with the Chinese garrisons of Cashgar and Yarkund. A coarse kind of China ware, musk, and bullion, are received from that quarter, but the chief import consists of tea; and the extent of the trade, as well as the remoteness of the tracts by which it is brought, equally arrest our attention. The inhabitants of Toorkistan are inordinately fond of that beverage, which they drink at all hours; nine hundred and fifty horse-loads of tea, or about 200,000lbs., have been this year brought from Yarkund to Bokhara. The greatest part of this quantity is consumed in Toorkistan; but little of it finds its way south of the Hindoo Koosh. The trade is carried on by the natives of Budukhshan. These merchants praise the equity of the Chinese, and the facilities of transacting matters of commerce with them. They levy a duty of one in thirty on all traders, which is very moderate. The tea is brought from the central provinces of China in boxes, by a tedious journey of many months. It is transferred to bags, and then sewed up in raw hides, as the boxes would not stand the journey. A horse-load of 250lbs. costs sixty tillas in Yarkund, and sometimes sells for a hundred in Bokhara: it is entirely green tea. The best tea found in Toorkistan is imported overland from a place called Tukht, in China, situated on the banks of a river, and sent by way of Astracan, in small tin or lead boxes. It goes by the name of “banca” tea, I believe from the tin in which it is packed: it sells for four rupees the pound, and is very high-flavoured. This tea is superior to any which I ever saw in England; and I have been informed that it retains its flavour from never having been subjected to the close atmosphere in a ship’s hold or the sea air. The Yarkund caravans cross the high lands of Pamere, and follow the valley of the Oxus to Budukhshan, Balkh, and Bokhara. The road is unsafe, and in many places dangerous, from overhanging cliffs. An earthquake, which occurred in January, 1832, threw down several of these, and also destroyed many villages and people in Budukhshan. The traveller likewise experiences a difficulty of breathing in crossing the Pamere ridge; and the caravans are sometimes attacked by the wandering Kirgizzes. Obstacles both natural and political endanger the path of the traveller and merchant. There is another and better route from Yarkund to Bokhara by the valley of the Sirr, or ancient Jaxartes, and Kokan, but less frequented than that by Budukhshan, from differences which exist between the Khan of Kokan and the Chinese. The Kokan route may be travelled by a caravan in forty-five days; and, as far as that town, the merchandise is conveyed from Bokhara in carts. The route by Budukhshan is more circuitous, and occupies a period of sixty-five days. At Khooloom, which is a mart between Yarkund, Bokhara, and Cabool, the ponies are exchanged for camels, and the load of two horses is borne by one camel to Bokhara. The Persian trade is inconsiderable, from the unsettled state of the roads, and the hatred which subsists between the people, who differ in their religious tenets. The shawls of Kerman form the principal article of import. Opium has also found its way from Persia to Bokhara, and is again exported to Yarkund and Cashgar, in China, where the same demand exists for it as on the sea-coast. In Bokhara it is sold for five tillas per maund of Tabreez.[40] These articles, as well as others of inferior note, are despatched by the route of Meshid, in Khorasan.

~Exports of Bokhara to other countries. Silk.~

~Cotton.~

~Wool.~

~Skins.~

I shall next notice the exports of Bokhara; and these are far from inconsiderable, since it has silk, cotton, and wool. The silk of Bokhara is chiefly produced on the banks of the Oxus, where the mulberry thrives luxuriantly; and nearly all the Toorkmuns are engaged in rearing silk-worms during the months of summer. It is exported in considerable quantities to Cabool, and even finds its way to India. At Bokhara it varies in price from nine to ten tillas for eight English lbs. The silk is wound and manufactured at Bokhara into a stuff called “udrus,” of a mottled colour,--red, white, green, and yellow,--which is the fashionable and most expensive kind of dress in Toorkistan. It sells from one half to one and a half tillas per piece of eight yards long and a foot broad. It is woven by the Mervees, now settled in Bokhara; but is not exported. There are likewise extensive cotton manufactures in Bokhara. I have mentioned the coarse chints which it exports to Russia; but most of the people dress in the native manufactures. There are dark and striped coarse cloths of different hues, of which a pelisse, or “chogha,” may be purchased for half a tilla. I do not suppose they would be worth imitating in Europe. The cotton thread of Bokhara seems to be in as much demand as that of Britain: it is exported in quantities to Russia, and much of the raw material is sent to Balkh, Khooloom, and Koondooz. The wool (pushm) of Toorkistan is sent across the mountains to Cabool and the Punjab, where it is manufactured into a coarse kind of shawl. It sells from six and a half to eight tillas per maund of Bokhara, which is equal to 256 lbs. English. A few years since it sold for double the price; but the articles manufactured from it have been found inferior, and the sale of the wool has declined. It is procured from among the Kuzzaks and wandering tribes about Bokhara, who were long ignorant of its value, and yet use it in the common ropes by which they bind their horses and cattle. The lamb skins of Bokhara are celebrated in the East: they are only procured at Karakool, a small district that lies between Bokhara and the Oxus. They are exported to Persia, Turkey, and China, but chiefly to the former country; the merchants of which purchase them for ready money, being afraid to risk a commercial investment across the desert. It is not possible to negociate a bill between Meshid and Bokhara.

~Duties on trade.~

~Abuses in the British Custom-house.~

The duties demanded on European goods at Bokhara are most moderate. They are levied according to the Koran, and are fixed at one fortieth of the capital, or 2-1/2 per cent. A merchant who was not a Mahommedan would have to pay higher duties; a Christian so much as 20 per cent.; a Hindoo 10 per cent., since the law so enacts it; but the greater part of this trade must ever be carried on by Mahommedans. The same principles guide the authorities in Cabool, though the chiefs eastward of the Lower Indus are more extravagant in their demands. Trade, however, is not obstructed by their exactions; while the upper routes, through the Punjab, are nearly closed on that account. Besides the regular customs, there is a transit duty levied in several places between the Indus and Bokhara; and some increased disbursements arise from the hire of escorts through troubled parts of the route. The merchants do not consider them exorbitant, and complain much more loudly of the rapacity and malpractices of the subordinate native officers of revenue in the British provinces. It is stated that these persons, when on duty at the custom-houses, purposely delay the merchants in their journey, though provided with the requisite passes; and that it is impossible to get their goods cleared without bribery. One merchant of Cabool assured me that he had been mulcted, in copper money, for one cart in which he was travelling, without goods, to the amount of eighteen rupees, between Hurdwar and Benares. The mercantile community of Cabool and Bokhara complain of this evil, and feel it the more, as the public duties are considered moderate, and their property is well protected. The Russian government, on the other hand, is free from such corruption, though it levies heavier duties: these have been made the subject of remonstrance on the part of the king of Bokhara, and are now partially reduced.

~Russian and British trade compared. Openings for increasing British exports.~

When we review the productions of Bokhara, and the apt uses to which they are applied by her native population, we may wonder at the great outlet which exists to our commerce in that quarter; but the demand is steady, and its constancy leads to a belief that it may be improved. There is no country in the Mahommedan world where a merchant is safer, and more free from oppression and exaction, than in Bokhara. If the people are bigoted on account of their religion, they are also bigoted to the injunctions which that religion imposes upon them. The Koran enjoins the most strict protection of the merchant in a variety of passages: nor are these violated or evaded by the ruler of the country. The goods which are imported into Bokhara are again sent to Samarcand, Kokan, and Yarkund, in China; also to Orgunje, and all the little cantons around the capital. Coarse articles are in more request than the finer fabrics, for the Uzbeks are very indifferent judges. We have seen that this market is supplied by two great European nations; but the females of both Cabool and Bokhara prize more highly the manufactures of Britain: and the influence of the ladies is of no mean weight in any country. The chints, while it has almost superseded the demand for shawl goods, has instilled a desire for novelty, and given a general taste for other articles of British import. Russia possesses such an extent of inland navigation, that she can bring the whole of her goods to the confines of Asia by water-carriage; and it is the superiority and cheapness of our manufactures that alone enable us to appear in the contest by the Indian route. We must surrender to her, I imagine, all trade in metals, and other weighty articles made from them; but we may successfully compete with her in our manufactures. To a mercantile country like England, a demand for goods is of the highest moment; and it is to be presumed that increase of demand will generally be attended with a diminution of price, while the increased sale would still bring an adequate profit to the manufacturer. A more extended exportation of British goods into these countries, in particular of white cloths, muslins, and woollens, I am assured by the first merchants, and even by the Vizier of Bokhara, would have the immediate effect of driving the Russians from that branch of commerce. The present exports of these articles from that country have been gradually declining; and the increase of the custom-house duties of Cabool affords the best evidence of the cause--the late increase of our own exports. I have taken pains to investigate this fact in other quarters, and the result of my enquiries leads me to believe, that we may not only throw the Russian part of this trade into the hands of our own merchants, but very materially augment the trade to Toorkistan in the whole of these articles. There are merchants in Cabool who would willingly push speculation still further, though some of them have a capital of eight or ten lacs of rupees floating in the Toorkistan trade. The transport of merchandise by the route of Cabool costs little; and, if Russia navigates the Volga, the greatest of the European rivers, Britain can command like facilities, by two more grand and equally navigable streams, the Ganges and Indus.

CHAP. IV.

NOTICE ON THE TRADE OF PERSIA.

~State of commerce in Persia.~

It is an old and just remark, that the Persians are not a trading nation, and have ever evinced equal timidity in adventures of navigation and commerce. The extent of trade which may be carried on through an inland country must always be limited, as compared with one possessing a sea-coast and harbours. In these Persia is not altogether wanting; but her population neither navigates the sea which washes her southern shores, nor the Caspian, that approaches her capital. The shipping of both is in the hands of foreigners, who have it in their power to lead the taste of the country by the nature of their exports, and to increase their quantity as occasion and opportunity present themselves. Persia is well supplied with goods of European fabric, both Russian and English, which stand much in the same relative estimation in this country as they do in Bokhara. English manufactures are preferred to those of any other nation; and, as the Persians dress well, their country is, perhaps, the best mart for their exportation in Asia. It is nevertheless very remarkable, that the British merchant here encounters a greater share of competition than in most other countries; and I cannot but think that it is greatly owing to the remissness and inattention of the English themselves.

~Routes of the commerce, and their advantages.~

It is not intended that we should here enter on an account of the general commerce of Persia, nor is the deficiency of our information such as to require any such essay. My own attention has been particularly directed to its northern trade; but we shall be throwing a clearer light upon that subject by sketching the whole of the routes of commerce into the kingdom. The intercourse between Russia and Persia is principally carried on by the ports of the Caspian; but there are also routes both east and west of that sea, by which its commodities reach the country. Meshid, in Khorasan, is supplied with many Russian articles by way of Bokhara. Tabreez and Tehran likewise receive them by way of Teflis and the Caucasus. Till lately, the imports of Britain into this country were conveyed by way of Bushire, which is the only port in the gulf of Persia, since Gombroon or Bunder Abbas, opposite the famous Ormuz, has long ceased to hold its former supremacy. We are informed that English East-Indiamen at one time sailed direct from Europe, and landed their cargoes in this harbour; but the annual amount of customs does not now exceed four thousand ducats. In our own times the exports of Britain have first been sent to India, and then reshipped for Persia by a most circuitous channel. It is with great propriety, therefore, that an endeavour has lately been made to open a road from Trebizond, on the Black Sea, to the northern provinces of Persia. With due care and attention, it cannot fail to become a most valuable opening to Britain, for it brings her goods into those parts of Persia, which are most stored with those that are brought from Russia, and gives a fair opportunity for a just competition with them, since it is equally inconvenient for the Russians to send their goods south of Isfahan, as it was for the English to carry them beyond that city. The trade by Trebizond places the rival powers on a more equal footing: and it will be remarkable if the experience of a very few years does not bear testimony to the greater consumption of British goods in Persia. This route too has great advantages over those from the Levant by Aleppo or Damascus, for both the Euphrates and Tigris traverse inhospitable countries; and there is no safe road into Persia from these cities but by way of Bagdad. At present, the goods which are sent beyond that city are of trifling value, for there is a loss in pushing on the greater and more common articles. The eastern provinces of Persia, about Herat and Meshid, are partly supplied from Candahar, in the kingdom of Cabool, which is a better line of commerce than would generally be believed. A boat may reach the coast of Mekran in ten days from Bombay; and Candahar is but eighteen easy marches from the sea. It is therefore a most valuable position, as the Indian exports which reach it branch eastward into Cabool, and westward into Persia. In this direction, too, there is no competition from any other nation.

~Foreign nations which trade with Persia. Goods introduced.~

With the command of position acquired by the English from their possessions in India, it is a matter of surprise that any other nation should be at all able to appear in the gulf of Persia as a trader; yet the case is very different, and many of the imports into Bushire are of foreign manufacture. The Dutch are in the habit of trading with this port, and have lately established a company for the purpose, though their operations have been at no time very active, and are now suspended from fear of the plague. They send indigo, spices, sugar, and coffee of their own produce from Batavia: they export little cloth, and their indigo is inferior to the article produced in India. When the Hollanders do not find a sale for their goods at Bushire, they take them on to Bussora. The French import the same articles as the Dutch from their settlements in Bourbon and the neighbouring islands. But the most formidable rivals are the Americans, who have only entered lately on this trade. At present, they land most of their cargoes in the east coast of Africa, from which they find their way to Muscat and Persia. Hitherto, they have only sent white goods, and with them they have spread an opinion, which was repeated to me by the Armenian merchants of Isfahan, that their cloths are superior to British, because the cotton is produced in their own country, and not injured from pressing. It is said to wear and wash well; and, if this cloth were introduced more extensively, the merchants assure me it would have a good sale: very little of it has been hitherto imported. The chintses of India, which are manufactured at Masulipatam, have a considerable consumption in Persia, and of late years have been preferred to English. There is not sufficient attention given to the brightness and variety of the pattern in England; and the native manufactures of India, though much coarser, retain their hue and brilliancy much longer. The demand for them is, therefore, on the increase, which is the more worthy of notice, as the English chintses for a long time superseded those of India, and are now sold cheaper than those of Masulipatam. We have stated that the Russians introduce their manufactures into Northern Persia; and they also import the fine Polish chints which I met with at Bokhara. There is no similar manufacture of the English to compete with this; which is also in great demand throughout Persia. The English do not, therefore, keep the ground which they might maintain in the chints trade, both from their position and manufacturing skill.

~Hints for improving the trade to Persia.~

Towards the improvement of the commerce with Persia, there are other points to be considered than the routes which ought to be pursued; but these are of great importance, since a number of outlets must be favourable to an increased sale. While we improve the communication from the west by Trebizond, we should not neglect it by the east from Candahar: that road is safe; but the chief exacts exorbitant and irregular duties, which he might be disposed to reduce on representation, as he professes a friendship for the British nation. It is at the same time practicable to open a better route into Persia, by the river Karoon, a navigable stream west of Bushire, which unites with the Euphrates, or Shat ool Arab, before it falls into the gulf. Goods sent up the Karoon would be thrown at once into the heart of Persia; but it may be doubted if the Persian authorities have either power or inclination to effect any such change: it would require their cordial co-operation, because the country that lies between the Karoon and Isfahan is wild and unsettled. Next to the lines of route, the kind of articles to be imported must be considered. English cloth bears a far higher character in Persia than Russian; but the colour which is in demand depends upon the fashion; and if due attention is not paid to it, a merchant will sustain loss. When I was in Persia, in the end of 1832, the colours most in request were, Oxford blue, blue, and brown, and next year they may change to red and grey; but it may be remarked, that, if dark coloured, they generally sell best. The outer garment of most respectable persons is made of broad cloth; and a cheap kind, that will keep its colour, is the best for export. _No high-priced goods of any description should ever be sent into these countries_; for property is insecure, and all persons will purchase that which is cheapest, if it be but respectable. The Persians, however, are fond of fine clothes, and will pay a liberal price for them. I remarked, on approaching the sea-coast, that the common people dress better; I presume because the goods are cheaper, or that there is greater temptation to buy them. This is observable in particular at Shiraz. In the case of broad cloths, a sombre colour will be most prized; but it is quite the reverse with chintses, which should be highly coloured. The patterns, also, should be frequently changed, as many of them being on a white as on a coloured ground: this will not only ensure a better sale, but a more constant one, as the Persians are fond of novelty. A profit of 30 and 40 per cent. is often derived in the Persian trade; but the mercantile community of that country are neither strict nor honourable, and an European trader must deal among them with caution. They are very liable to overtrade, and few of them have any capital. Bankruptcies are common; fifteen considerable merchants failed last year in Isfahan, simply from the non-arrival of silk from Gilan on the Caspian. It is also necessary to be cautious regarding the coinage, for it is liable to alteration, according to the pleasure of the monarch. A Persian ducat now bears a value of nine _kurans_, or rupees, while it was only held at eight last year. The increase has arisen from the Prince Royal taking the field, and his Majesty’s desire to fill his coffers: he does not seem to have considered that, since nothing ever goes out of his treasury, and he only receives to hoard, he himself must be the loser. From what I saw of the market in Persia, if money may be lost from this cause, I am also sure that great sums might be realised; for there is a scarcity of gold, and it may be transferred with profit from one province to another. Cutlery is a good article for export to Persia, and there is, perhaps, nothing that would sell so profitably as good flint locks: they must be good, for it is to be remembered they are already supplied from Constantinople, and also from Russia; and though their workmanship is inferior, it is by no means bad. All the hardware in the country is brought from Russia.

~Singular instance of commercial enterprise. Advantages held out from that instance.~

On the banks of the Caspian I had a singular instance of the wide extent to which the articles of import into Persia are scattered in the case of China sugar-candy: I there met a merchant, at Astrabad, with an investment of that article, with which he was proceeding to Khiva: he had purchased it at Tehran, and was embarking at a small port called Kara-tuppa, and would coast along the east side of the Caspian by Hoosn Kouli, Chelken Isle, and the bay of Balkan, to a place called Okh, which is but ten days’ journey, and due west from Khiva. Here he intended to disembark his property, and forward it by hired camels belonging to the Toorkmuns, which he assured me he could do without fear, since the barbarous part of that community lie south of the road to Khiva, and between it and Persia. What a proof of enterprise have we in this single fact! The sugar had been first brought from China to Bombay, shipped from thence to Bushire, and then sent inland to Tehran and the banks of the Caspian, where it was a third time embarked, and transported across a desert to Khiva. It would there meet the sugar of our West India possessions, that is exported by the Russians, which would place the products of America and China in competition with each other in the centre of Asia. I have before observed, that the sugar-candy of China sent from India will not bear the expense of transport beyond Cabool, and does not, therefore, find its way to Bokhara. In the instance before us, we have the same commodity pushed far beyond that city by the route of Persia, which will better suggest the other advantages to be reaped from this route than any further remarks on my part. I have only to observe, that if a bulky, and by no means valuable commodity, brought from so vast a distance as China, can be sent to such a remote quarter of Asia, and bring a profit to the trader, the same route may be used with still greater advantage as another channel for the export of British manufacture.

_PL III._

_BACTRIAN AND OTHER COINS._

_Procured by Lieut. Burnes during his travels into Bokhara._

_Drawn & Eng^d. by L. Beadley._

_London, Published by John Murray, Albemarle Str. June 1834._]

_Procured by Lieut. Burnes during his travels into Bokhara._

_Drawn & Eng^d. by L. Beadley._

_London, Published by John Murray, Albemarle Str. June 1834._]

OBSERVATIONS
ON
LIEUT. BURNES’S COLLECTION
OF
BACTRIAN AND OTHER COINS.

BY
MR. H. H. WILSON, SANSCRIT PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF
OXFORD;

AND

MR. JAMES PRINSEP, F.R.S., SECRETARY OF THE ASIATIC
SOCIETY OF BENGAL.

PROFESSOR WILSON’S NOTES.

The coins, of which delineations are now offered to the public, form an extensive and important contribution to a branch of numismatic enquiry which has been, within a few years, successfully prosecuted in India. To Colonel Tod belongs the merit of having introduced it to notice by his paper on Greek, Parthian and Hindu medals, in the first volume of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society: further information was published in the 17th volume of the Researches of the Asiatic Society of Bengal; and the Journal of the same Society contains several interesting communications on the same subject, many of these relate to the present collection, which, for the variety, number, and description of the coins that it comprises, and the authentication of the sites in which they were found, is of the highest interest and value.

The coins in question may be classed under four divisions, exclusive of the Macedonian and Syrian medals, which sometimes occur. These are--1. Bactrian, 2. Indo-Grecian, 3. Indo-Scythian, and 4. Hindu. In the former there have been discovered by Colonel Tod and Dr. Swiney: coins of Apollodotus and Menander, one such coin has been found by Lieutenant Burnes, and one of Euthydemus, besides several which cannot be ascribed to any individual prince, although unquestionably Bactrian coins. The Indo-Grecian coins are comparatively rare, and the series is not very extensive: one specimen is in the present collection. The Indo-Scythian coins are more numerous, and offer a number of interesting specimens: some of them are the same as those described by Colonel Tod, Mr. Prinsep, and myself; but there are some which are new, and there is one (pl. iv. fig. 18.) which is in better preservation than any that has hitherto been found.

The coins of the last class, or Hindu are less numerous in this than in other collections, but such as it comprises are new.

Besides these coins, which are the subjects of more special attention, as little known and calculated to throw light on Indian history, the collection includes a gold and several copper coins of the Sassanian kings of Persia, and a number of Mahommedan coins, for the verification of which there has not yet been an opportunity: from their late date, however, and the fulness of the information derivable from Mahommedan writers with regard to the history of this part of Turan, less interest attaches to them than to the Greek and Indian coins, and it was less necessary to have them delineated. The following are brief notices of the coins which are engraved.

Plate III. No. 1. A coin of Euthydemus, who has been hitherto regarded as the third Bactrian king. Obverse: a head with the Bactrian diadem. Reverse: Hercules sitting on a seat over which the lion’s hide is spread: he holds his club in his right hand, resting it on his right knee. Legend, ΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΕΥΘΥΔΗΜ.

Until recently, the only coin known of this prince was a gold coin, originally published by Pellerin, and described by Mionnet and Visconti. In 1831 the abbé Sestini published a catalogue of the collection of Baron Chaudoir, and has there given a description and plate of a silver coin of Euthydemus, exactly similar to the one in our plate. These are the only two perfect specimens yet described: No. 2. agrees in general character and appearance with No. 1.; but it presents on the obverse a very dissimilar portrait; and the attitude of the sitting Hercules is something different. The letters also vary, and offer only ΛΕΩΣ and ΗΜ. It is possibly, therefore, rather the coin of Demetrius, the son of Euthydemus, than of the latter; but, if so, it differs still more widely from the coin of Demetrius described by Sestini in the collection of the Baron Chaudoir, in which the obverse presents a king, very unlike the individual in our coin, and having on his head an elephant’s hide by way of a crest: on the reverse is a standing figure of Hercules.

The succeeding figures, Nos. 3. to 5., express evidently Bactrian coins, as the device of the sitting Hercules, and the general character of the portraits, sufficiently establish. Some are much worn, and they are more or less of inferior execution, and present no legible inscriptions: such traces of letters as are visible appear to be intended for Greek, although very rude. In the catalogue of Sestini, above referred to, are three coins of a similar description, all Bactrian, evidently having the same sort of profile on one side, and the sitting Hercules on the other. The difference that prevails in the features of the kings whose portraits we have on these coins, sufficiently proves them to belong to different individuals. If these were all Greek kings of Bactria, as is probable, they also show that our series of those kings is much more imperfect than has been hitherto suspected, and that it undoubtedly omits several names, whilst it probably includes others who never ruled over Bactria.

Fig. 6. This coin is identified with the preceding by the reverse, the sitting Hercules; but the execution is much more rude, and the disposition of the hair peculiar. There are characters on the reverse, but undecipherable: they seem designed for Greek. This coin may, perhaps, be referred to one of the first barbaric princes who subdued Sogdiana, if not Bactria Proper, and adopted the device of the Bactrian coins.

7. A copper coin, much worn: on the obverse a standing figure, something like the Apollo on Colonel Tod’s coin of Apollodotus. (Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, pl. 12. fig. 1.) On the reverse, also, is the same figure, a tripod, with similar characters. The letters on the other face are Greek: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ is legible, the others are less distinct; but they appear to be ΝΙΚ. ΜΕΝΑΝΔΡΟΥ, making this a coin of Menander, not of Apollodotus.

8. Is the coin of an Antiochus; apparently, from the countenance, Antiochus the Great. On the reverse is a standing figure casting a javelin with the right hand, and bearing the lion’s hide by way of shield on the left arm: ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΑΝΤΙΟΧΟΥ. The device on the reverse is unusual, if it occurs at all amongst the coins of the Antiochi.

9. One of a number of small copper coins, the impression on which is in most effaced. Those that are perfect present a head on one side with a figure on the reverse, intended for a rude fire altar: there are Pehlevi characters; and these coins, there can be little doubt, are of Sassanian origin.

10. A gold coin, evidently of one of the Sassanian kings.

11. These are very doubtful. The other engravings are antiques found at Khojuoban, near Bokhara.

Plate IV. fig. 18. This coin is of singular interest and value: it belongs to the class which is considered Indo-Scythian, and of which representations have been published in the third volume of the Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society, by Colonel Tod, and, in the seventeenth volume of the Asiatic Researches, by myself. In all these coins Greek letters are traceable, but the inscriptions are imperfect or indistinct: that of Colonel Tod’s coin has been read by Professor Schlegel ΒΑΣΙΛΕVϹ ΒΑϹΙΛΕΩΝ ... ΙΕΡΝΙϹΛΕΙϹ ... ΕΔΟΒΙΓΡΙϹ; but the legend is interrupted, and the final letters of the latter word indistinct. In this coin the inscription on both sides is entire and distinct. On the obverse is plainly ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ ΒΛΕΙ Λ-ΩΝ ΚΑΝΗΡΚΟΥ, and on the reverse ΝΑΝΑΙΔ.

It has been conjectured by Mr. Prinsep that the name on the obverse Kanírkos, or, perhaps, Kaníthkos,--for the letter is rather undetermined,--is intended for _Kanishka_, a Turk or Tartar sovereign of Kashmir, who reigned about 120 B.C. according to the “_Raja Tarangini_” a history of Cashmir. Mr. Csoma Körösy also informs us that Kanishka is well known in the Tibetan annals as a king of Kapila; near Hurdwar, about the date already mentioned, who was a patron of the Bauddha doctrines; name, date, and locality are therefore in favour of the verification, and it must be admitted, until, at least, something more satisfactory can be proposed. It is not possible to offer an equally plausible conjecture with regard to the inscription on the reverse. If it could be read _Tanaid_, it might be imagined to refer to the original seat of the Scythian tribes, who conquered Bactria, according to Des Guignes, about 134 years before Christ, and extended their power to the delta of the Indus. In this coin the figure on the obverse is the same that prevails on these Indo-Scythian coins: a man in a high cap and a long tunic, holding a spear in his left hand, and extending his right either to grasp a trophy, a buckler or coat of mail, or, as supposed by Colonel Tod, to drop incense on an altar: on the reverse is a figure in a long robe, holding, apparently, a flower. There is also the monogram which is found on all the coins of this class, and on a series of coin apparently Hindu. This monogram is figured by Mionnet No. 1222, and referred by him to an unknown coin (vol. 6. p. 715); the description of which shows it to be a coin not yet observed amongst those recently found in India, but belonging, probably, to the class.

19. A coin belonging, possibly, to the Indo-Grecian series: on one face is a helmeted head, on the other a single horseman with his right arm extended. The specimens found in this instance are much worn; but on several, with this device, Greek inscriptions have been read: this is particularly the case with two delineated in the Journals of the Asiatic Society for August 1833, on one of which is plainly ΣΩΤΗΡ ΜΕΓΑ; and on the other, ΜΕΓΑ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ. On one of Colonel Tod’s is ΤΡΩ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ, and there can be no doubt, therefore, that these are coins of Greek princes either of India or Bactria.

20. Is an Indo-Scythian coin, figured by Colonel Tod: the man on the obverse is the same as in No. 18.; but on the reverse is an Indian bull and a figure in front.

21. Has the same reverse as the preceding; but the costume is more distinct, and is that of a Brahman; the figure on the obverse appears to be clad in mail. These two coins were found at Balkh.

22-30. These coins all belong to the same series as the foregoing, some bearing the same devices; whilst on some the reverse is varied. Detached Greek letters are observable on one or two.

31. This is one of several coins which are unquestionably Hindu: they mostly bear an elephant on one face, and a horse, or a nondescript animal, on the other; above the elephant are Devana gari letters, the most legible specimen of which appears to read Srí Mahá deva, the common title of the god _Siva_.

_Oxford, 17th May, 1834._

MR. JAMES PRINSEP’S NOTES.

Considering the short space of time allowed to a traveller, in his rapid passage through a foreign country, for the pursuit of objects not immediately connected with his errand, and the disadvantages which his own disguise and the suspicions of the natives oppose to his search after the very rare relics of antiquity, which may have escaped destruction for twenty centuries in their country; considering, too, that the inhabitants are unable to appreciate the value of such objects, and mostly ignorant of the demand for them among inquisitive natives of the West, Lieut. Burnes may be deemed very successful in the store of coins he has brought back from the Punjab, and from the valley of the Oxus.

Of pure Bactrian coins he will be able to add at least three to the cabinets of Europe, upon one of which the name of Euthydemus is quite distinct; while of the Indo-Scythic, or subsequent dynasties, his store is so ample as to afford ten to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, besides those he takes to Europe; and among the latter is one coin of the dynasty which supplanted the Macedonian princes of Bactria, calculated to excite much curiosity among antiquarians.

I shall note the observations that occur to me regarding the whole of this collection of coins.

Plate III. Figs. 1. to 6.--These silver coins, tetradrachms, are known at once to be of Bactrian origin from the sitting figure of Hercules holding his club, on the reverse, much in the same posture as that of Jupiter on the Syro-Macedonian coins. The epigraphe on fig. 1., a valuable coin and in fine preservation, is ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ ΕΥΘΥΔΗΜ, or, “of king Euthydemus,” the third king of Bactria. The only coin of this monarch hitherto known in Europe, is described in Mionnet’s _Description de Medailles Antiques_. Pinkerton says it is a gold coin, having “two horsemen with Bactrian tiaras, palms, and long spears,” on the reverse; it is therefore quite different from the unique specimen before us.

Fig. 2. has the features of a different prince; the reverse is, however, similar to the last, and the three final letters of ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ are visible; as are ΗΜ, which can only form part either of ΕυθυδΗΜος, or of δΗΜητριος, his son.

Fig. 3., of which there is a duplicate, is of a similar nature; the features corresponding with No. 1. or Euthydemus. There are two others of still ruder fabrication, distinguished by a more projecting forehead, (Nos. 4. and 5.); they are illegible on the reverse.

Fig. 6. One of two silver tetradrachms. These are more like Arsacidan coins, the stool on which the figure on the reverse sits having the form of those depicted in Vaillant: although the connection with the foregoing coins is very strong, the headdress and formal curls appertain to the Persian monarchs. The inscription is in the Pehlevi character, some of the letters resembling badly executed Greek.

Fig. 8. This is a coin of Antiochus, probably struck in Parthia, from the figure of the javelin-thrower.

Fig. 9. One of twenty small Sassanian copper coins. They have a good head on the obverse, and a very rudely executed fire altar on the reverse.

Fig. 10. A gold coin of one of the Sassanian kings of Persia, supposed to be Sapor (Shapûr). The name and titles are very distinct, in the _Pehlevi_ character. It is remarkable that the usual supporters of the fire altar, two priests or kings, are omitted; unless, indeed, the rude ornaments on each side are intended to represent human figures holding swords. A silver Sassanian coin, delineated in Hyde’s _Religio Veterum Persarum_, has similar supporters.

All these coins are from Khoju oban, the ruins of an ancient city, thirty miles N.W. of Bokhara, where numerous gems and antiques, some of which are engraved, were also procured.[41]

Fig. 7. This is a square copper coin, from Shorkoth, a fortress twenty miles from the junction of the Jelum and the Chenab (the Hydaspes and Acesines), where Alexander lost his fleet in a storm. It is by some thought to be the fortress of the Malli, in the assault of which he was wounded. All that can be read of the inscription is ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ. On the other side the inscription is Pehlevi. This coin may be ascribed with tolerable certainty to Menander, both because it resembles in shape the coin of that prince, in Col. Tod’s plate, and because the first three letters of the word which follows ΒΑΣΙΛΕΩΣ, have much the appearance of ΝΙΚ, or ΝΙΚΑΤΟΡΟΣ, the epithet applied to Menander, according to Schlegel, Journal Asiatique, Nov. 1828. The standing figure, however, on the obverse, and the curious emblem on the reverse, supposed by Col. Tod to be a portable altar, agree rather with his coin of Apollodotus.

Plate IV. fig. 18. This is a copper coin, procured in the neighbourhood of the Tope of Manikyala.

Obverse--A king or warrior holding a spear in the left hand; and with the right sacrificing on a small altar. (?) Epigraphe, ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥϹ ΒΑϹ ... ΚΑΝΗΡΚΟΥ.

Reverse--A priest or sage standing, and holding a flower in his right hand; a glory encircles his head; on the left the letters ΝΑΝΛΙΔ; on the right the usual Bactrian monogram, with four prongs.

This coin is of great value, from the circumstance of its being the only one out of many discovered in the same neighbourhood, upon which the characters are sufficiently legible to afford a clue to the prince’s name. In the onset, however, we are disappointed to find, that none of the recorded names of the Bactrian kings at all resemble that before us[42]: yet there can be no doubt about any letter but that preceding ΚΟΥ, which may be either Θ, Ρ, or Ϲ. By assuming this latitude in the reading, I discovered a name which would agree, as nearly as it could be expressed in Greek, with ΚΑΝΗΘΚΟΥ or ΚΑΝΗϹΚΟΥ; and should my conjecture prove correct, the discovery of this coin will be hailed as of the greatest value by all who are engaged in the newly developed study of Bactrian antiquity. The coin was at first placed with the Society by Lieut. Burnes; but, seeing its value, I thought it but just, after taking impressions and drawings of it, to place it in the discoverer’s hands, for the personal satisfaction of numismatologists in Europe. I suppose it to be a coin of KANISHKA, a Tartar or Scythic conqueror of Bactria.

According to Mr. Csoma De Körös, the name of KANISKA occurs in the Tibetan works as a celebrated king in the north of India, who reigned at _Kapila_, which is supposed to have been in _Rohilkhand_, or near _Hardwar_. His reign dates above 400 years after Sakya, when the followers of the Buddha religion had become divided into eighteen sects (the Sakya tribes, or _Sacæ_), under four principal divisions, of which the names, both Sanscrit and Tibetan, are on record.[43]

In Mr. Wilson’s Chronological Table of the history of _Kashmir_ (As. Res. xv. p. 81.), we find Hushca, Jushca, and _Canishca_, three Tartar princes, who succeeded Domodara in the kingdom of _Kashmir_, either reigning successively or synchronously. They introduced the Buddha religion, under a hierarch named Nagarjuna, and were, according to the _Raja Taringini_, of _Turushca_ or Tatar origin. The Sanscrit MS. places their reign 150 years before _Sacaysinha_ (or Sakya Singh); but the learned translator, in a note, proves that the text was at least misunderstood, and that the passage intended to express “150 years after the emancipation of the Lord Sakya Sinha.”

The epoch of Sakya (the fifth Buddha or Goutama) is determined by concurrent testimony of the Ceylonese, Siamese, Pegue, Burmese, and Chinese æras, which are all founded on the birth or death of the Buddha legislator; and, though all differing more or less, concur in placing him between the limits of 544 and 638 years B.C.: the Raj Gúrú of Asam, a pundit well versed in Buddha literature, fixes the _Nirwan_ or emancipation of Sakya-Muni in 520 B.C.[44] Taking, then, from this epoch an interval of 400 years to the reign of Kaniska, the latter would fall near the end of the second century B.C. We know from other sources that the overthrow of the Bactrian dynasty by the Scythian or _Sakyan_ tribes happened in 134 B.C. (125 by Schlegel). The present coin, therefore, confirms the fidelity of the _Raja Taringini_ as an historical work, and leaves no doubt of the epoch of _Sakya_.

Mr. Wilson finds grounds for throwing back the termination of the reign of Abhimanya Canischa’s successor, from B.C. 118, as given in the _Raja Taringini_, to B.C. 388; because _Kashmir_ became a Buddha country under Tartar princes, _shortly after_ the death of Sakya; but from Mr. Csoma’s subsequent examination of the Tibetan sacred books, in which the three periods of their compilation are expressly stated; “first, under Sakya himself (520-638 B.C.), then under Ashoka, king of Pataliputra, 110 years after the decease of _Sakya_; and lastly by Kaniska, upwards of 400 years after Sakya,”--little doubt can remain that the epoch, as it stands in the _Raja Taringini_, is correct.

There are other circumstances connected with the Bactrian coins, which tend to confirm the supposition of a Buddhist succession to the Greek princes. In the first place, the reverse ceases to bear the formerly national emblem of the Bactrian horseman, with the Macedonian spear; and in its place a sage appears, holding a flower, and invariably having a glory round his head, proving him to be a sacred personage.[45] Secondly, although upon the first coins of the dynasty, we find the inscription in Greek characters (a custom which prevailed under the Arsacidæ also, and continued under the first Sassanian princes); still, upon coins of the same device, but probably of later fabric, we find the same kind of character which appears upon the Delhi and Allahabad pillars; the same which is found at Ellora and in many ancient caves and temples of Central India, and is held in abhorrence by the Brahmans, as belonging to the Buddhist religion.[46]

I need not repeat Mr. Wilson’s opinion, drawn from other grounds, that the _Tope_ of _Manikyála_, in the neighbourhood of which these coins are found, is a Buddhist monument, but it receives much confirmation from the discovery of this coin of the Sakyan hero, Kanishka.

Having thus far endeavoured to reconcile the coin 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 the Buddhist line. Colonel Tod includes these coins in the same class as the last, and adduces his reasons for referring them to Mithridates, 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 reverse; 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_.”[47]

Mr. Schlegel thinks it curious, that such marks of the Hindú faith should appear on these Tartar coins; but, considering the Indian origin of the Sacæ, does not this rather prove the same of their successors, instead 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 _Manikyála_, and generally throughout Upper India, which have a head on the obverse, and a Bactrian horseman on the reverse, may be referred to the reign of Eucratides I., since the gold coin from the neighbourhood of the Caspian Sea, described by Bayer as having the same device on the reverse, bears, in legible characters, the epigraphe “of the great king Eucratides.” Our coins of this type have never shown us more than the words, “King of kings;” and in most of them (as fig. 19. ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥ, ΒΑϹΙΛΕΥ) the Greek is so corrupted as to give the idea of a later epoch. The type of the horse seems to have prevailed long afterwards.

Fig. 24. Copper coins of this device are met with throughout Upper Hindostan: they constitute the third series of Colonel Tod’s plate; and some in his possession have decided Greek characters upon them. On the _obverse_ is the same warrior, with spear and altar. On the _reverse_ is what he supposes to be a priest about to sacrifice the bull; but in the coin before us the _dhoti_ is so precisely the costume of the Brahmans, that it inclines rather to look upon the animal (especially as he has the hump) as the sacred bull of this country, denoting the prevalence or predominance of the Brahmanical faith in the Indian dependencies of Menander’s or Eucratides’ dominion.

Fig. 25. This type of coin is, if any thing, more common than the last; and the inscriptions are no longer Greek; but either of the unknown character of the Delhi column, or genuine Hindi. The figure astride upon the elephant is always much out of proportion, and the Raja with the altar more rudely executed. The elephant is, like the horse, preserved in subsequent coins of the Hindus; thus:--

Fig. 31. This same device is still common in Southern India. The form of the Nagni characters on this and fig. 14. agrees with those on copper grants of land, 700 or 800 years old.

Figs. 20, 21. These coins were found at Balkh, and resemble those of Manikyála.

_Calcutta, June, 1833._

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

LONDON:
Printed by A. SPOTTISWOODE,
New-Street-Square.

FOOTNOTES

[1] I can only give the native names.

[2] “Ta khooda khubur shoodun ab i Maroochak adum ra mee kooshud.”

[3] Arrian, l. iv. c. 6.