Jainism Early Faith of Ashoka

SR No.: 007306
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Edward Thomas
Publisher: Trubner and Company London
Total Pages: 167
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 6 MB

Page 115

THE EARLY FAITH OF AŞOKA.
VI. BUDDHIST. Although I have felt bound to insert the words BOAA ZAMANA in my Table, on the authority of Gen. Cunningham, I have only been induced to admit any such possible reading by the coincident appearance of definite figures of Buddha, under the double aspect of the conventional standing and seated statues of the saint.
I am not myself prepared to follow the present interpretation of the legends, though better examples may modify my views. But the point I have now more especially to insist upon is, that the appearance of these Buddhist figures is confined to inferior copper pieces of very imperfect execution, whose legends are absolutely chaotic in the forms and arrangement of the Greek letters. So that I should be disposed to assign the limited group of these Buddha-device coins to a comparatively late date in the general series of imitations : which, though still bearing the name and typical devices of Kanerki, would seem to consist of mere reproductions of old types by later occupants of the localities in which the earlier coins were struck.
THE MATHURÁ ARCHÆOLOGICAL REMAINS.
I adverted, at the commencement of this article, to the importance of the late archæological discoveries in and around the ancient city of Mathurá 2-which so definitely
AAO of the samine as to be utterly this class of coins are incontest
1 The coin most relied on to prove the intention of the terms "OM BOA or perhaps OAI BOA; either Aum Buddha or Adi Buddha,” published by General Cunningham in 1845 (J.A.S. Bengal, p. 435, plate 2, fig. 3), presents a central figure on the reverse exactly like the outline of tbe APAEIXPO of the present plate. His Nos. 6 and 7, as I have remarked, though clear in the definition of the figures of Buddha, are of coarse fabric, of far later date than the associate OaAll of the same plate, and finally, the letters of the legends are so badly formed and so straggling as to be utterly untrustworthy in establishing any definite reading. The other limited examples of this class of coins will be found in Ariana Antiqua, pl. xiii. figs. 1, 2, 3. Here, again, the figures are incontestable, but Prof. Wilson did not pretend to interpret the broken legends. Prinsep figured a coin of this description in fig. 11, pl. xxv. J.A.S. Be Prinsep's Essays, pl. vii. This coin was noticed, but left uninterpreted by Lassen in his paper in the J.A.S. Bengal, 1840, p. 456.
2 Amid the cities which were supposed to have claims to the honour of becoming the birthplace of Şákya Muni, Mathurá is rejected because its kings had hereditary ideas inconsistent with the new faith, i.e. adhered to the old,