Indian Antiquary Vol 12

Author(s): Jas Burgess
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 12

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(JANUARY, 1883.
but he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be taken.'
The allusion to Babylon recalls the statement that it was from Mesopotamia that the idol H u bal was imported into Makka.“
The comment of Jerome on this passage is in remarkable agreement with what we are told of the custom as it existed among the ancient Arabs. He writes, -He shall stand in the highway and consult the oracle after the manner of his nation, that he may cast arrows into a quiver and mix them together, being written upon or marked with the names of such people, that he may see whose arrow will come forth, and which city he ought first to attack.' *
The superstitious practice of divination was forbidden by the author of the Qur'ân. Thus, in Sûra v (Maida) 4, we read, -
Ye are forbidden to make division by casting lots with arrows: this is an impiety!'
See also ver. 92 of that same Súra. Notwithstanding this very plain prohibition, Burton came upon what he believes to be a relic of this practice of the pagan times of Arabia. At no less a place than Madina he found a religions performance called 'Istikhara,' or more commonly Khira,' in which the will of the Divine Being is consulted by praying for & dream in one's sleep, revealing to those concerned how any affair (such as a marriage, etc.) ought best to be settled. But they consult God not by prayer alone, but also by the rosary, by opening the Qur'ân, and other devices of a similar nature, which devices bear blame if a negative be deemed necessary. Burton atteste that this kind of superstition obtains throughout the Muhammadan world." His great predecessor, Burckhardt, found the very same practice in vogue at Madina half a century earlier.
INDO-SCYTHIAN COINS, WITH HINDI LEGENDS.
BY EDWARD THOMAS, F.R.S., &c. LONDON. When editing James Prinsep's Essays, in Indo-Scythians after their apparent establish1858-I was unable to add to his early lists of ment in India, which I must refer to in some "Indo-Scythic and Hindú link.coins," or to detail, before. I proceed to describe the coins advance beyond his highly suggestive readings themselves. of the second series of imitations from the
1-THE SAKAS. Ardokro type."
The Sa kas seem to have formed so recogSince that period, however, I have never nised a part of the Indian body-politic, in olden lost sight of the subject, and have lately had days, that we find them noticed in three several time to re-examine my old notes and facsimiles passages in the Mahabharata associated with and been favoured with the additional advantage various other tribes of more or less uncertain of referring to the recent acquisitions of Sir origin and geographical location. Man u, also E. C. Bayley and Mr. A. Grant. In like manner, gives them a place in his restricted survey of I have been permitted to study, somewhat at more central lands and the Vishnu Purana my leisure, the large accumulations in the pretends to define their serial succession, in British Museum, which now include the old relation to other apparently contemporaneous India House Collection. From these combined dynasties--to the effect that "after these (the sources I have been able to compile the sub- Andhras) various races will reign; as, 7 Â bhijoined list of coins, which will, I trust, materi- ras, 10 Gardabhilas, (Gardabhars), 16 ally assist my fellow numismatists in their Sa kae, 8 Yavanas, 14 Tasha ras (Tukmore ample and extended investigations in situ. hâras), • .
One of the most curious results obtained in Then “Pauras will be kings for 300 years. this direction, however, is the discovery of no When they are destroyed, the Kaila kila less than four several tribal designations of the Yavanas will be kings."
Burckhardt, Arabia, vol. I, p. 299.
Pocock, Specimen, 329; Sale, Prel. Disc. pp. 90-91. e Burton, Pilgrimage, vol. II, p. 287. 6 Burckhardt, Arabia, II, 260.
1 Plate Ixii, page 227, Journal Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. IV, 1835, Plate xxxviil, page 630.
Plate , page 376, Journal of the Ariatic Soc. Bengal, vol. V, 1856. Plate IIIviii, page 643.
Quoted in Wilson's Vishnu Purana. Hall's Edition, vol. II, pp. 165, 171, 179.
Chapter X, Sec. 44" K&mbojas, Yavansa, and Sakas.
Vishnu Purana vol. IV, p. 202, see also pp. 205 note 1, 208-9, &e,