Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c23.24

c23.24

constituted the currency of both the Kabul Valley and the Panjāb during the long period from 180 a.d. to c. 425 a.d., the date of the settlement of Kidāra Shāh in Gandhāra (§ 76). Within these limits the relative age of different classes may be determined by their nearness to or remoteness from the originals from which they were copied. Thus C.’s class A (NChr. 1893, p. 115, Pl. VIII) on which the names of Kaniṣka or Vāsudeva can still be read, is, no doubt, older than his class B (id. p. 120, Pl. IX) on which only a few vestiges of the Greek letters remain. A criterion of locality may also be applied:—(1) the coins bearing ΟηþΟ on the *rev.*, with type, Śiva and his bull Nandi (**Plate II, 13**) derived from the earlier Kuṣaṇa types of Vāsudeva (**Plate II, 12**) belong rather to the Kabul Valley: they were imitated by the Scytho-Sassanians (§ 75); (2) those with ΑΡΔΟΧþΟ, and type, seated goddess (**Plate II, 14**), belong rather to the more eastern portion of the Kuṣaṇa dominions: they were imitated by the Kidāra Kuṣaṇas (§ 76) and by the Guptas (§ 91; C.NChr. 1893, p. 115 — by an error in his mode of statement, he seems to mean the opposite). This type is probably also derived from the earlier Kuṣaṇas (e. g. Gard. Pl. XXVI, 18: Kaniṣka). This is, however, not certain, as all the coins attributed to the earlier Kuṣaṇas which bear this type have a late appearance, and it is possible that they may all have been struck by the later Great Kuṣaṇas who mechanically repeated the names of their predecessors in the Greek inscr. on the *obv.*