The Inscriptions on the Tillya-tepe and Pushkalavati Coins: Epigraphic, Linguistic, and Literary Remarks.

• Author: Baums, Stefan

In the preceding article, Joe Cribb summarized and discussed the various readings and interpretations suggested for the inscriptions on the Tillya-tepe and Pushkalavati coins. I here provide a more detailed paleographic and linguistic analysis and suggest some parallels from Buddhist literature.

The Tillya-tepe coin reads

s[i]ho vigadabhayo

on the side featuring a standing lion facing left. The s is of the type with half-closed head, which, in manuscripts, belongs to the middle period of Kharosthi (ca. first century BCE to first century CE), but on inscribed objects like these could occur later. The vowel sign i is diagonally attached to the head of the s. The following ho does not appear to have the dot under it that, from the Indo-Greek coins onward, is usually added to aksaras with a rounded bottom that do not allow for the attachment of a regular footmark (cf. the kra on the other side of the coin). The bh is of the three-stroke type (corresponding to the type of the k in kra on the other side).

The inscription on the side showing a bearded figure pushing a wheel reads

[dha]rmacakra pravatati (1)

Here the apparent bottom of the first aksara dha could also be interpreted as containing an anusvara, which would yield a Sanskrit-Prakrit hybrid spelling dhamrma as known from other epigraphic sources (such as the oil lamp CKI 550). The aksara kra shows a dot under it that is best interpreted as a purely graphical footmark, as already noted above. An alternative interpretation as anusvara mark is unlikely, both because anusvaras are not used at all in the corpus of at least the Indo-Greek coins and also because -am would not be a phonetically expected ending. It is to be noted, however, that no dot footmark is apparent under the following pra, which would in principle also call for it. There appears to be a surface fissure to the right of the following, short-stemmed va. The final aksara is a clear ti (not ko--note the difference from kra), first identified as such by Sadakata 1998.

While the identity of the individual words of the inscription is thus clear, the question remains whether they should be taken as constituting two separate statements, or rather one single sentence as suggested by Tanabe 2008. A review of the expressions on either side of the coin in Buddhist literature quickly shows that they nowhere occur together, making a separate construal immediately more likely.

For comparisons of the Buddha with the lion as king of the animals in general, one may refer to Powers 2009: 26-27. Within the Gandhari corpus, the Buddha is compared to a lion in the Peshawar pedestal inscription (CKI 229: sihenam sa[harthako vi]kramasya "companion of lions in...