Content area
Full Text
Summary
The National Museum of Pakistan, Karachi yields fifty six coins of Huvishka and his imitations, the fifth ruler of the Kushan dynasty. Apart from this, there are seven gold coins of this ruler also lying in the same collection which are published by the author amongst the gold collection (Khan 2009/a).
In quantity the copper coins of Huvishka are not too much as compare to the coins of other rulers of the said dynasty particularly of Kanishka lying in the cabinet of National Museum. In quantity they are few but in terms of design, use of deities and number of issues they are interesting and found in great varieties. There are three main obverse designs of Huvishka copper, such as (a) king riding on elephant to right, (b) king reclining on couch and (c) king seated cross-legged. The reverses of these types represent range of deities i.e. Athsho, Mao, Miiro, Nana, Oesho, Ardoxsho and Pharro. These coins uniformly display Bactrian legend in Greek letters ... on the obverse and name of deity in the same legend on the reverse.
(ProQuest: ... denotes non-USASCII text omitted.)
Classification of Huvishka Copper
Along with main types of copper, as cited-above, some more obverse designs of Huvishka are also known such as king reclining on cushion to left (exceptional), king seated in squatting position and king seated with both legs turned to left. The coins of last two varieties seemed to be issued from a different mint which were derived from couch and seated crosslegged position of the king respectively as shown on his normal coins. Looking to his other issues large number of reverse deities are observed like Ardoxsho, Athsho, Bowman (Ram), Heracles, Mao, Miiro, Nan, Nana with kneeling king, Oado, Oesho, Pharro, six-armed and eighth-armed deities. These coins have variety of tamgas on their reverse such as: Kanishka's tamga, barred tamga introduced by Huvishka and stylized tamga. Apart from this one group of coins in addition also have a nandipada symbol on the reverse. Moreover the cited-above reverse deities are appeared in various styles and forms. Sometimes the deities of recognized characteristics and appearance are inscribed with the name of other deities. Similarly some deities are mentioned with new and unidentified names. In this...