Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c21.25

c21.25

§ 52. Mathurā. — For an ancient cast coin found in the neighbourhood of Mathurā and bearing the inscr. *Upātikyā* in Brāhmī letters at least as early as the 3^rd cent. B.C. **(Plate III, 17)** v. C.CAI. p. 86, Pl. VIII, 1; and C.ASR. III, pp. 14. 39. The coins of Balabhūti have Brāhmī characters of, probably, the 2^nd cent. B.C. (C.CAI. p. 87, Pl. VIII, 9). For the coins of other Hindu princes found at Mathurā v. C.CAI. p. 88, Pl. VIII; and BH.JRAS. 1894, p. 553, Pl. 10—14. BH. assigns these to the period of the decline of Śaka power at Mathurā, i. e. after the last part of the 1^st cent. B.C., thus assuming that they were imitated from the coins of the Śaka satraps of Mathurā (§ 32); but some of the coins of *Rāmadatta* **(Plate IV, 1**; C.CAI. Plate VIII, 13; and BH.JRAS. 1894, Pl. 14) seem to be undoubtedly earlier, as they have for the reverse the incuse square which characterises the coins of Pañcāla (Śuṅgas, § 53). The coins of *Balabhūti* are also connected with those of *Bahasatimita* (§ 49) by identity of type — a Caitya-tree — and by their epigraphy. These considerations would seem to show that *some* at least of the Hindu princes preceded the Śaka satraps, who imitated their coins.