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MARCH, 1885.)
BOOK NOTICES.
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always coupled with the trisúla, the special emblem of the Saiva creed; which is certainly against the symbol being a distinctive sign of solar worship. In fact,--though other scholars, as well as Mr. Smith, interpret it as a 'fire-altar;' and though Mr. Smith states, at p. 126, that "in at least one "specimen in the British Museum collection, the "grains of incense falling on the fire-altar are "plainly indicated,"-it is still a fair matter of argument as to whether the emblem may not be a vessel containing the sacred tulask-plant, as has been suggested, or even something of an entirely undenominational character. There has always been a tendency to connect the Early Guptas specially with solar worship, by accepting them as belonging to the Suryavamsa or lineage of the Bun. And it is doubtless this tendency, coupled with "the connection which existed between the "asvamadha-ceremony and solar worship," which has influenced Mr. Smith in suggesting, at p. 129, that Samudragupta also," though a good Hinda, "may have been, as so many Hindds still are, " specially devoted to the worship of the sun." This tendenoy, however, is due to nothing but a mistake, originating with Dr. Mill's mislection of the Allahabad inscription, where, in line 30, he reads róma-charmanah ravi-bhuvd båhur=ayam= uchchhritah stambhaḥ," "of this child of the Sun, though clothed in hairy flesh, this lofty pillar is the arm"; while the original has achakshana iva bhuva &c., "this pillar has been erected, as if it were an arm of the earth declaring (the glories of Samudragupta)." There is, as a matter of fact, nothing whatever to connect the Early Guptas with solar worship, till the time of the last of them, Skandagupta, of whose reign we have the Indôr plate, of the year 146, which opens with an invocation of the sun, and records a grant to a temple of the sun at that town. So far as epigraphical evidence
goes, it was only at this period that sun-worship became at all general in the more strictly Hinda part of northern India, and it was undoubtedly introduced by a purely sun-worshipping race from the north-west frontier of India, who then began to overrun the country, and finally overthrew the Early Guptas. The'rayed-sun standard,' however, if this is the correct interpretation, so -is a far more distinctive symbol; as it appears nowhere again in any of the Early Gupta coins, except, --without the staff, and as a symbol only, "-on one coin, bearing the name of Chandra (Pl. iii. No. 2), which is attributed to Chandragupta II. There is, in fact, nothing in the numismatic details of the coins attributed to Ghatotkacha to connect them conclusively with the undoubted coins of the Early Guptas. Again, like his father before him, Ghatotkacha was not a paramount sovereign, but only a subordinate ruler, his title being simply that of Mahardja. The title indicative of supreme sovereignty in those times was Mahdrájddhirdja, which was assumed for the first time by Ghatotkacha's son Chandragupta I. On Mr. Smith's own shewing, therefore (p. 156), Ghatotkacha's rank was not such as to entitle him to issue a coinage and we have no reason to expect to find any coins of his time, any more than of his father, of whom none have been found. And finally, the name of Ghatotkacha does not appear on the coins that are attributed to him. The name on the obverse, under the left arm of the king, inside the spear, is Kacha, ;* which, meaning glass, crystal,' &c., is a very different word from utkacha, 'having the hairs (of the body) standing erect (through pleasure),' which is the second component of the name of Ghatotkacha. And the marginal legend, commencing at the top, behind the king's head, - not, as Mr. Thomas and Mr. Smith take it, at the
• The connection of Samudragupta with the alama. dha-coin rests chiefly upon the ooourrence of a certain unexplained syllable on that coin (Pl. ii. No. 9), and on the indubitable Lyrist-coin of Samudragupta (Pl. ii. No. 7).-It is a little doubtful whether this syllable is identical on the two coins; or whether it is not si on the former, and sé on the latter. But, however this may be, the same syllable si or 84,- again with nothing to explain it, -ooours also on one of the coins, belonging to General Cunningham, of the later Indo-Scythian series of the Punjab.
Jour. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. III. p. 344. 10 This, however, is open to argument. In the case of the coin attributed to Chandragupta II., Mr. Smith himself interprets the symbol as a 'wheel' (p. 150). Precisely the same symbol, without the staff, ocours also at the beginning of a Buddhist inscription at Mathuri (Archaol. Surv. Ind. Vol. LII. Pl. xvi. No. 22.) And this instance, as well as the general design of the symbol, is oertainly in favour of interpreting the symbol as form of the Buddhist wheel, rather than as #rayed sun or planet with the unnecessary addition of circle round the ends of the rays.
The only other coin, at all connected with the Early Gupta serice, on which this symbol is known to appear again, and as a standard, is a coin belonging to General Cunningham, of Jaya-Prakirnayasas, of about the period of the Aphead inscription of Adityasena.-A very similar symbol or standard, but more elaborate in its details in on the rock at Tusam, below the inscription which, as translated, records the conquest of Ghatotkacha by Toshára king Vishra (Archaol. Suru. Ind. Vol. V. p. 139, and Pl. Xl.) This, however, is nothing but a piece of pure fabricated history. Thé Vishnu of this insoription is the god. The word tushara is used in its meaning of 'frost.' And the syllables that have been manipulated into the name of Ghatotkacha, are, in the original, dänav-angand, the women of the Danavas or demonn.'
11 Mr. Smith gives this name as "kacha; which is sometimes read as kacha." But the coin figured by him has distinctly the vowel d attached to the first syllable; as also have the coins belonging to General Cunningham, Mr. Gibbs, and the Asiatio Society of Bengal, and apparently the coin figured by Mr. Thomas in Archeol. Buru. West. India, Vol. II. PI. vii. No. 2.
