[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [General history and culture](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general) › [The Greeks in Bactria and India](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938) › c30.2 # The Greeks in Bactria and India c30.2 The Greeks in Bactria and India c30.2 - **Language:** English ### [c30.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c30.2) That the sign ϸ which appears in Greek legends on the Kushan coinage and on that of two earlier rulers has the value \*sh\* was remarked in 1872 by Cunningham,¹ who thought that the sign was a peculiar form of Rho. In 1887 Sir A. Stein² put forward the theory that it was a revival of the obsolete Greek letter San (which had the value \*sh\*), since the oldest minuscule form of San resembles, though apparently it is not identical with, the ϸ sign on the Kushan coinage. This has raised a good deal of discussion; on the one hand, various other origins have been suggested for the ϸ sign, including the Aramaean Tsade,³ and on the other, much learning has been expended in an attempt to show that this sign had not the value \*sh\* but the value \*r\* (Rho),⁴ while Professor F. W. Thomas has taken the view, which resembles Cunningham's, that the \*sh\* sign ϸ was derived from the \*r\* sign ρ (Rho),⁵ and has also said that after the fifth century San only survived as a numeral⁶ (and as a numeral it cannot come in question, for it was written with a totally different sign). But I have never seen the one enlightening Greek text on the subject quoted. - [Previous: c29.31](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c29.31) - [Next: c30.3](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c30.3) - [Up: c30](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c30) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c30.2](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.general.tarn-1938.c30.2) · Pramāṇa