The Beginnings of Buddhist Art and Other Essays in Indian and Central-Asian Archaeology c9.16

c9.16

II. — The four coins reproduced are borrowed from the *Catalogue of Indian Coins in the British Museum, The Coins of the Greek and Scythic Kings of Bactria and India*, by PERCY GARDNER (London, 1886), pll. IV, 1; II, 9; XI, 7; XXVI, 8 : *a*. Head of « Alexander, son of Philip », wearing a lion's skin, like Heracles; on the reverse, mention of the « reigning king, Agathokles the just », inscribed round a Zeus seated on a throne with a back, holding in his raised left hand the long sceptre and on his extended right hand the eagle (cf. p. 126). — *b*. Head of a king, wearing a diadem and a helmet in the form of an elephant's head; on the reverse, mention of « King Demetrios », inscribed on both sides of a standing Heracles, bearing in his left hand the club and the lion's skin and with the right hand crowning himself with an ivy-wreath (cf. p. 126). — *c*. Diademed head of the « Saviour King Menander » ; on the reverse, Pallas Athene, bearing the aegis and hurling the thunderbolt : round her the same inscription, but this time in the Indian alphabet and language of the north-west (cf. p. 127). — *d*. Full-length portrait of the « Shah of Shahs, Kanishka the Kushan » ; spear in the left hand, the right extended above a pyre; on the reverse, a standing Buddha, having an aureole and a nimbus (cf. p. 128).