On the so-called Sino-Kharoṣṭhī Coins

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  • 所謂シノ＝カロシュティー銭について

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Since its discovery in 1874 by Sir Douglas Forsyth, the so-called Sino-Kharoṣṭhī coins have been collected and studied by a number of scholars. The conclusions arrived at by R. Hoernle, who studied the coins more systematically than any other else, are generally followed in the academic world. In Hoernle’s opinion, (1) the coins were issued after the coins of Maues, Azes and Azilises, who were of Saka stock and ruled Punjab and its neighbourhood from c. 50 B. C. to c. 80 A. D. and (2) the Gugras or *Gurgas circulated them in Khotan sometime between A. D. 73 and 200, when the region had been under the control of Chinese power. Against Hoernle, F. W. Thomas maintained that the coins were issued either in Yarkand or in Khotan under the rule of Yarkand kings at the middle of the 1st century A. D. when the king of Yarkand was so strong as to control Khotan and many other countries in Chinese Turkestan.In the present article, the author tried to establish that (1) the so-called Sino-Kharoṣṭhī coins were issued after the model of coins of Eucratides I (c. 171-155 B. C.), as well as after that of “round coins” of Ch’in 秦, which were circulated before the “fan-liang 半兩” coins came into being and that (2) they were made and used in Khotan and its vicinity sometime between the end of the 2nd century and the beginning of the 1st century, B. C.

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