242
[AUGUST, 1873.
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
vaen or pându kuli, as they are there called, also in Coimbator. After a heavy fall of rain in the monsoon of 1842, a pot containing 522 denarii of Augustus and Tiberius, with a few of Caligula and
the building either of a Stupa or of a Vihár by some pious Buddhist. The stone has been used,
perhaps for centuries, for macerating spices, and the middle part of the inscription is nearly
Claudius, was laid bare in the same district; and in 1840 a hoard was discovered near Sholapur,
obliterated.
a few specimens only of which were
secured,
which I have identified with the ancient Taxila. I
and proved to be aurei of Severus, Antoninus,
have now got a second base in much better
Commodus, and Geta. I myself possess an aureus
preservation, and two Ionic capitals.
of Trajan found at Kadapá, and a solidus of Zeno
formed part of a Buddhist Vihár, which cannot be
These
dated later than B. c. 80, as I found twelve coins of
at Madurá. .
All these afford testimony of the frequent in tercourse of Roman traders with the
In 1863 I discovered the base of an
Ionic pillar in the ruins of a temple at Shahdheri,
Indian
Ocean, but still more decisive proof is supplied by the existence of great numbers of Roman coins
Azas carefully secreted under one of the statue pedestals.-A.C.
With regard to the inscription referred to by General Cunningham . . . the inscription, though
occurring with Chinese and Arabian pieces along
not the stone, was discovered by Dr. Leitner, who,
the Coromandel coast. The Roman specimens are
after many useless attempts, finally and after much labour succeeded in restoring the whole of the in scription. Dr. Bellew had discovered the stone, on which only “IX” was visible, and had abandoned
chiefly oboli, much effaced, but among them I have found the epigraphs of Valentinian, Theodosius, and Eudocia. These are found after every high
wind, not in one or two places, but at frequent in tërvals, indicating an extensive commerce between
it at Hoti Murdan, in Dr. Johnson's compound.
China and the Red Sea, of which the Coromandel coast seems to have been the emporium. The Western traders must either have circumnavigated
Dr. Leitner to take away anything he might have left at Hoti Murdan. Dr. Leitner, after personal inspection, got the stone carried down to Lahore by bullock-cart, and there got the inscription both lithographed and photographed. . . The discovery of the stone therefore belongs to Dr. Bellew, that of the inscription to Dr. Leitner.—Editor, Tribner's
Ceylon, or come through the Paumbam passage, probably by the latter way, but in either case must have communicated freely with Ceylon. We know from Muhammadan writers that this com
mercial intercourse was continued by Arabian merchants from the eighth to the fourteenth cen turies, and from these, and the narratives of the
early Portuguese voyagers hitherto little explored, valuable information concerning Ceylon may pro bably be gleaned. W. E. in Notes and Queries, Apr. 19, 1873.
Several years afterwards, in 1870, he authorized
Record, June 1873. BUDDHIST SCULPTURES.
Dr. Leitner has taken with him to Europe large collections of antiquities, statues, arms, coins, and numerous interesting objects of natural history, all collected by himself, and referring to the various countries between Kābul and Lhassa. These collec
tions he has left at Vienna, where they will be INSCRIPTION OF GONDOPHARES.
shown in the Exhibition.
The Ariano-Pali Inscription, noticed by Prof. Dowson as having been forwarded to England by Dr. Leitner, was discovered by Dr. Bellew at Shāhbāz-garhi, and is now in the Lahore Museum. Before seeing Prof. Dowson's notice I had already deciphered the name of Gondophares (Gudupha rasa), with the year of his reign and the name of the month, Wesdkh, etc. This inscription is of
It is expected that the
Graeco-Buddhistic sculptures brought over by Dr.
Leitner will attract much attention, and prove that a school of art existed in the East, of which
the founders probably migrated from Greece: it will also throw light on a very obscure portion of Indian history, and show the relations that existed between the Baktrian Satraps and Buddhism.— Trübner's IRecord, June, 1873.
considerable interest, as it is almost certain that
Gondophares is the king Gondoferus of the Legenda Aurea, who is recorded to have put St. Thomas to death. The tradition is supported by the date of the inscription, which I read as Samvat 103, the fourth day of the month Vestikh (equivalent to A.D. 46), in the 26th year of the king's reign. The inscription ends with the words sa-puyae mátu-pitupuyae, “for his own religious merits, and for the religious merit of his father and mother.” It is therefore only a simple record of
CASTES OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY,
(Continued from p. 154.) Bhavasār:—Adyer caste in Gujarát, of somewhat inferior rank.
Bharthara –In Gujarāt, a caste of middle rank; sellers of parched grain, &c. Sugurio:—In Gujarāt (Surat Zillā), a not un common caste of middle rank, who are gardeners and sell vegetables : habits similar to those of the lower classes of Hindu traders.