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NOVEMBER, 1928]
BOOK-NOTICE
No. 15. 216 grains: Mint?: A.H. ?
Obverse and reverse same as obverse of coin No. 11 above.
No. 16. 218 grains: Mint?: A.H. ?
Both obverse impressions.
One is same as obverse of No. 9 above.
The other is same as obverse of No. 11 above.
Coins Nos. 13 to 16 may be considered as mistakes in minting.
[NOTE.-Professor S. H. Hodivala, the well-known authority on Gujarât numismatics, on reading the above article in the first instance, made several comments, which were referred back to the author. Omitting points that have been settled or which are not of essential importance, the issue of the correspondence may be briefly summarized below for the benefit of our readers.
219
Professor Hodivala considers the most important point to be the question of the date of the death of Maḥmad I. He has examined six specimens of the coins which Mr. Singhal reads as of 919 A.H., and thinks that the figures on three of these (written in the reverse order) not improbably stand for 914. The Bombay Gazetteer, he suggests, is at best a second-hand authority; and the statement therein is, moreover, discounted by the fact that the compiler has not quoted the source of his information, in view of the discrepancy of two years from the date found in the most accredited Persian histories, such as the Tabaqât-iAkbars, Tarikh-i-Firishta, Mirát-i-Sikandari and Mirát-i-Ahmadi. He points out that while there are Mahmûd I coins of 917 and, as now described, of 919, there are none of 918; and he also draws attention to the fact that two copper coins of Mazaffar II, are registered by Mr. Nelson Wright (Indian Museum Catalogue, II, Gujarât, Nos. 57 and 58) which are clearly dated in 918. He thinks it would be hazardous to base on these coins a theory for upsetting the accepted chronology of the two reigns concerned. Prof. Hodivala also pointed out that the phrase Seal is a common adjunct on the silver coins of Muzaffar. Mr. Singhal says as to this that he only referred to the peculiar way in which the letters were inscribed, and to the fact that, though found on silver coins, copper coins with this legend had not hitherto been described. To Professor Hodivala Mr. Singhal's coin No. 8 is the most interesting of those described, as he finds the style or script very similar to that of the 'Shah-i-Hind' coins, of which he possesses a large number of specimens, on some of which the margins, which have hitherto defied decipherment, can be read without much difficulty, and about which he has been preparing a paper to show that they were struck, not by Babur or Humayun, but by Bahâdur.
Numbers 13 to 16 Mr. Hodivala would prefer to class as freaks.-JOINT EDITOR.]
BOOK-NOTICE.
ARCHEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA: ANNUAL REPORT, 1924-25. Edited by J. F. BLAKISTON. 12x9: pp. xiii, 270; 43 Plates. Calcutta, 1927. Mr. Blakiston, who edits this report, fitly preludes it with a feeling reference to the great loss sustained by the Department in the untimely death towards the close of the year of that distinguished archaeologist, D. Brainerd-Spooner.
Section I contains a summary of the conservation work (including repair), which forms so essential a part of the functions of the department, carried out during the year. Due attention' is being paid to the protection from erosion and other destructive agencies of important inscriptions. Under this head we notice a reference to exploration work beneath the Tughlaq mausoleum at Tughlaqâbâd, which has shown that the graves within are the real sepulchres, and that there is no crypt beneath, as had been thought.
Section II deals with exploration and research, At Taxila substantial progress was made in the excavation of the older city on the Bhir Mound and of the later Scytho-Parthian city of Sirkap under the supervision of Sir John Marshall, who records an important find of 1167 silver coins, mostly punch-marked Indian issues, including some in the shape of oblong bent bars from 1 to 2 inches
in length, but also 3 Greek coins of special interest and a well worn siglos of the Persian empire. Two of the Greek coins are of Alexander the Great and one of Philip Aridaeus. Apart from the fact that this is the first recorded find of such coins in India, the discovery helps to confirm previous conclusions as to the period when Indian punch-marked coins were in circulation and to fix the date for the upper strata of buildings on the Bhir Mound. Among other interesting antiquities found at these sites may be mentioned 18 copper coins of Kadphises I and 2 of Azes II, and 4 terracotta " votive tanks," recalling those in use in ancient Egypt as far back as the third dynasty. Exploration conducted by Mr. H. Hargreaves on mounds near Sibi, Kuchlak, Saranan and Mastung in Baluchistan indicated that the sites had been occupied for a considerable time before and after the Christian era; but it seems unlikely that the remains can throw any light on Indo-Sumerian history or art.
The chief interest of the report, however, undoubtedly lies in the further details afforded of the work being carried on at Mohenjo-daro in the Larkana district of Sind and at Harappa in the Montgomery district of the Panjab, which reveals to us the existence of a prehistoric civilization on the plains of the Indus comparable with that of Sumer
