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ZOROASTRIAN DEITIES ON INDO-SCYTHIAN COINS.
APRIL, 1888.]
For although it is actually on the obverses of Kanishka and Huvishka that we meet with the most convincing examples of P-sh (KANHPKI
Kanishka, OOHPKI-Huvishka, KOPANO Kushan), nobody seems to have yet thought of utilizing their evidence for the enigma in the rest of the legend!
The full legends on the obverses of the Turushka coins vary merely in the name of the king. They are found on the gold coins of Kanishka: PAONANO PAO KANHPKI KOPANO (fig. xiii.) and on those of his successor Huvishka: PAONANO PAO OOHPKI KOPANO (fig. xiv.)
The only variants of any importance occur in the spelling of KANHPKI (once with the ending KO) and OOHPKI (written sometimes OOHPKO, OOHPKE, OYOHPKI), and can easily be ascertained from the catalogue of Prof. Gardner. The bronze coins of Kanishka bear the short inscription PAO KANHPKI, but those of Huvishka bear a legend, which is materially identical with that of the gold coins, but, being written in a rather barbarous fashion, was formerly misread into PAONANO PAO OOHP KENOPANO." The corresponding legend of the rare Greek coins of Kanishka BACIAEYC BACIAEWN KANHPKOY leaves no doubt as to the meaning of PAONANO PAO. It has been considered an established fact since the days of Prinsep that Scythic PAO represents "King" and PAONANO the plural of the same word, but no satisfactory etymology of these forms has yet been offered. The proposed identification of PAO with the Indian rúja does not require a detailed refutation. We can neither suppose that the Scythians, so careful in their transcripts, should have persisted in ignoring the palatal j, nor that the quite modern Indian form ráo should have appeared at that date in the Pâli vernacular, which in the inscriptions of the very same Turushka kings still exhibits the full forms mahárája rájádirája.
As the simple PAO evidently expresses BACIAEYC (comp. the legend PAO KANH
3 Comp. Cat. p. lii.
38 See Cat. p. 129.
Comp. Prof. Oldenberg's Note: ante, Vol. X. p. 215. Published by General Sir A. Cunningham, Archeological Survey of India, Reports, Vol. III. p. 35 and Plate xv. 18. Since the present paper has been sent to the press, M. Drouin has drawn attention (Academy, March 17, 1888) to what he calls" une éclatante confirmation de la lecture shahanáno shah." furnished by a
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PKI of the bronze coins), we must look in PAONANO for a genitive plural, correspond. ing to BACIAEWN of the Greek legend. However, not only does Indian grammar not account for the peculiar form of this caseending, but also the construction of the phrase is distinctly un-Indian. The order of its elements (genitive plural nom. sing.) is, on the contrary, exactly that observed in the Iranian title sháhan-shah (Old Persian khshúyathiyánám ksháyathiya), of which Bartheus Barthéor is the regular representative in Greek.
36
PAO and PAONANO PAO, i.e. "shah and *shahanáno shah, are, in fact, identical with the Iranian titles Shah and Shahan-shah, which we can prove from other sources to have been the distinctive appellations of the Indo-Scythian rulers. Thus, in the Mathurâ inscription" of the (Saka) year 87 Vâsudêva, the BAZOAHO of our coins, is called Mabârâja Rajatirâja Shahi. Again, in the daivaputra shahi sháhánashahi baka, mentioned in the Allâhâbâd inscription of Samudra Gupta, General Cunningham has long ago recognized a direct reference to the Turushka kings, called devaputra, "the sons of heaven," in their inscriptions. And, lastly, we find a late, but very distinct reminiscence of these Scythic titles in the Jain legend of Kâlakâcharya, which calls the princes of the Sakas, the protectors of the saint, Sahi (Shâhi), and their sovereign Lord Sahaņusahi.
38
The form shahi (Prâkṛit sáhi) still preserves in its final i a trace of the old ending ya (in khshayathiya), which has disappeared in the modern Persian form sháh. The latter form is represented by our PAO, which, after the analogy of MAO máh, we read shah.
=
The Indian transcripts of the faller title may furnish us with valuable help for the determination of the grammatical ending in PAONANO, which evidently forms a link between the ancient khashayathiyánám and the shahan of the Persian title, and here we find the Prakrit sáhánusdhi of the Jain legend even more interesting than the shahanashahi of the
newly discovered inscription at Mathura, which is dated "in the 7th year of the Maharaja Rajâdiraja Shahi Kanishka."
3 Published by Prof. H. Jacobi, Zeitschrift of the German Oriental Soc., Vol. xxxiv. p. 255; first translated by the late Dr. Bhâu Daji, see Literary Remains of B. D., 1887, p. 121.
