242 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [August, 1873. vaen or pdndu huli, as they are there called, also in Coimbator. After a heavy fall of rain in the monsoon of 1842, a pot containing 522 denarii of Augustus and Tiberius, with a few of Caligula and Claudius, was laid bare in the same district; and in 1840 a hoard was discovered near Sholapur, a few specimens only of which were secured, and proved to be aurei of Severus, Antoninus, Commodus, and Geta. I myself possess an aureus of Trajan found at Kadap&, and a solidus of Zeno at MaduiA. All these afford testimony of the frequent in¬ tercourse of Roman traders with the Indian Ocean, but still more decisive proof is supplied by the existence of great numbers of Roman coins occurring with Chinese and Arabian pieces along the Coromandel coast. The Roman specimens are chiefly oboli, much effaced, but among them I have found the epigraphs of Valentinian, Theodosius, and Eudocia. These are found after every high wind, not in one or two places, but at frequent in¬ tervals, indicating an extensive commerce between China and the Red Sea, of which the Coromandel coast seems to have been the emporium. The Western traders must either have circumnavigated Ceylon, or come through the Faumbam passage, probably by the latter way, but in either case must have communicated freely with Ceylon. We know from Muhammadan writers that this com¬ mercial intercourse was continued by Arabian merchants from the eighth to the fourteenth cen¬ turies, and from these, and the narratives of the early Portuguese voyagers hitherto little explored, valuable information concerning Ceylon may pro¬ bably be gleaned. W. E. iti Notes and Queries, Apr. , 1873. INSCRIPTION OP GONDOPHARES. The Ariano-Pali Inscription, noticed by Prof. Dowson as having been forwarded to England by Dr. Leitner, was discovered by Dr. Bellew at Sh&hbaz-garhi, and is now in the Lahore Museum. Before seeing Prof. Dowson’s notice I had already deciphered the name of Gondophares (Oudupha- rasa), with the year of his reign and the name of the month, Vesdkh, etc. This inscription is of considerable interest, as it is almost certain that Gondophares is the king Gondoferus of tho Legenda Aurea, who is recorded to havo put St. Thomas to death. The tradition is supported by the date of the inscription, which I read as Samvat 103, the fourth day of the month Vesdkh (equivalent to a.d. 46), in the 26th year of the king’s reign. Tho inscription ends with the words sa-puyae mdtu-pitupuyae, “for his own religious merits, and for the religious merit of his father and mother.” It is therefore only a simple record of the building either of a Stupa or of a Vihdr by some pious Buddhist. The stone has been used, perhaps for centuries, for macerating spices, and the middle part of the inscription is nearly obliterated. In 1863 I discovered the base of an Ionic pillar in the ruins of a temple at Shahdheri, which I ‘have identified with the ancient Taxila. I have now got a second base in much better preservation, and two Ionic capitals. These formed part of a Buddhist Vih&r, which cannot be dated later than b.c. 80, as I found twelve coins of Azas carefully secreted under one of the statue pedestals.—A.O. With regard to the inscription referred^ to by General Cunningham . . . the inscription, though not the stone, was discovered by Dr. Leitner, who, after many useless attempts, finally and after much labour succeeded in restoring the whole of the in¬ scription. Dr. Bellew had discovered the stone, on which only “ IX” was visible, and had abandoned it at Hoti Murdan, in Dr. Johnson’s compound. Several years afterwards, in 1870, he authorized Dr. Leitner to take away anything he might have left at Hoti Murdan. Dr. Leitner, after personal inspection, gob the stone carried down to Lahore by bullock-cart, and there got the inscription both lithographed and photographed. . . The discovery of the stone therefore belongs to Dr. Bellew, that of the inscription to Dr. Leitner.—Editor, Triibner a Record, June 1873. BUDDHIST SCULPTURES. Dr. Leitner has taken with him to Europe large collections of antiquities, statues, arms, coins, and numerous interesting objeots of natural history, all collected by himself, and referring to the various countries between Kabul and Lliassa. These collec¬ tions he has left at Vienna, where they will be shown in the Exhibition. It is expected that the Graeco-Buddhistic sculptures brought over by Dr. Leitner will attract much attention, and provo that a school of art existed in the East, of which the founders probably migrated from Greece : it will also throw light on a very obscure portion of Indian history, and show the relations that existed between tho Baktrian Satraps and Buddhism.— Triibner'8 Record, June, 1873. CASTES OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY. (Continued from p. 154.) Bhavaadr:—A dyer caste in Gujar&t, of somewhat inferior rank. Bharthara:—In Gujar&t, a caste of middle rank ; sellers of parched grain, &c, BugurioIn Gujar&t (Surat Zill&), a not un¬ common caste of middle rank, who are gardeners and sell vegetables : habits similar to those of the lower classes of Hindu traders.
