Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c21.32

c21.32

§ 56. Taxila, the modern Shāhdheri or Dheri Shāhān, in the Rāwal Pindi District (C. Geog. p. 104). For the coins of the earliest period, v. supra §§ 4—6. The art of striking from a die would seem to have been known here at an earlier period than elsewhere in India. The earliest specimens are struck only on one side, and by a method peculiarly Indian, according to which the metal was stamped while in a semi-molten state, with the result that the impress of the die was left enclosed in a deep incuse square. The coins of Pañcāla (§ 53) and Tripurī (§ 57) offer other examples of this method (Bh.JRAS. 1894, p. 553). From the early square struck coins of Taxila (**Plate I, 11**) are imitated the copper coins of the Greek princes Pantaleon and Agathocles, c. 190, B.C. (**Plate I, 12**, Pantaleon). These, like all other Greek coins of the period, have types on both sides; and the 'double-die' coins of Taxila, the art of which, moreover, has an undoubtedly Greek appearance, are probably due to their influence (**Plate I, 13**). The double-die coins are succeeded by those of Maues, who probably conquered Taxila in the latter part of the 2^nd cent. B.C. C. regards Liaka Kusuluka as a Śaka satrap of Maues at Taxila, interpreting the words of the Taxila copper-plate *Chaharā[ta] Cukhṣa* as one name = Taxila (Geog. p. 109).