Indian Antiquary Vol 17

Author(s): John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 99

APRIL, 1888.] ZOROASTRIAN DEITIES ON INDO-SCYTHIAN COINS.
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ZOROASTRIAN DEITIES ON INDO-SCYTHIAN COINS.
BY M. AUREL STEIN, PH.D., M.R.A.S. ALTHOUGH the latest in that long series of with a clearer view of the issue, the fresh a numismatic relics, which form our main evidence of the coins. We shall attempt here documents for the history of the Greek and to collect in a condensed form the information Scythic rulers of Bactria and India, the coins which that remarkable coinage affords on the of the Turushka kings, are perhaps the most state of Iranian religion and speech in the important for the student of Aryan antiquities. centuries preceding the Sassanian epoch. Their extremely varied reverses exhibit in For the historical facts connected with the well-executed designs and clearly legible role of the Yueh-chi or Kushans in India we characters the figures and names of numerous can refer our readers on the present occasion deities, many among which, as already re- to the above-named publications of von Sallet cognized by the first observers, bear an unmis- and Prof. Gardner, and to the excellent actakably Zoroastrian character. These repre- count contained in the late Prof. von sentations are, in fact, almost our only contem- Gutschmid's article on Persia in the 9th Ed. porary documents for that most obscure period of the Encyclopædia Britannica. They afford, in the history of Zoroastrian worship which however, but little material for the solution of intervened between the fall of the Ancient the question that mainly interests the Iranian Persian Empire and the Sassanian revival. scholar-vie., how and where these tribes of The identification of the types represented evidently non-Aryan descent became so deeply must therefore be considered a task of the penetrated with Zoroastrian influences. But first importance for the student of the Iranian from Chinese annals we are able to fix the date Religion. On the other hand, Historical Gram- of the invasion, which brought the Yueh-chi mar can attach scarcely less importance to the under King Kadphises south of the Hinduelucidation of the legends, considering that Kôsh, at about B.C. 25, and a century later they are clearly written phonetic specimens of we meet with distinct traces of Zoroastrianism the language, which can be dated, with some among them. King Kanishka (on the coins thing like chronological exactness, since the KANHPKI), whom Buddhists in their tradilate Mr. Fergusson's ingenious discovery has tions claim as the great patron of their church, revealed the identity of the Saka era (starting and with whom the Saka era originated (A.D. from A.D. 78) with the era employed by the 78), is the first known to employ Iranian types Turushka kings of our coins in their Indian and “Scythic" legends on his reverses. His inscriptions.
successor was OOHPKI (Huvishka), whose The philological enquiry into the types inscriptions range from the year 33 to 51 of the and legends of the Indo-Scythic coinage has Saka era (A.D. 111-129): and his very numerous made but comparatively slow progress since coinage, from which Greek legends have now the days of Prinsep and Lassen ; but perhaps definitely disappeared, adds some new types of it may now be resumed with some chance of Iranian deities to the already large pantheon success, since Dr. von Sallet's exhaustive mono- of Kanishka. The issues of Huvishka are the graph, based on true historial criticism, and last of the Indo-Scythic coinage with which we more recently Prof. Percy Gardner's excellent are concerned on the present occasion, as the catalogue of the rich collection under his care, much inferior coins of a later king, who bears have placed us in full possession of the numis- the name of BAZOAHO (VAsudeva in the matio facts. At the same time, the great inscriptions), are restricted in their types to advance made in our knowledge of Zoroas- the more or less barbarous representations of a trianism, through the more extensive study of few non-Zoroastrian deities. its sacred literature, enables us to utilize, In the Plate which accompanies our remarks
1 Adapted with additions from the Oriental and Babylonian Record, August, 1887.
. On the saka, Samvat and Gupta' Eras, J. R. A. S. 1880. p. 259, sqq.
Die Nachfolger Alexander des Grossen in Bactrien und Indien, Berlin, 1879.
The Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India, in the British Museum, London, 1886.