Fig. 79. Jama Masjid, Delhi.
Fig. 80. Tomb of Emperor Humáyun.
Fig. 81. Bádsháhí Mosque, Lahore.
Coins.—Among the most interesting of the archaeological remains are the coins which are found in great abundance on the frontier and all over the Panjáb. These take us back through the centuries to times before the invasion of India by Alexander, and for the obscure period intervening between the Greek occupation of the Frontier and the Muhammadan conquest, they are our main source of history. The most ancient of the Indian monetary issues are the so-called punch-marked coins, some of which were undoubtedly in existence before the Greek invasion. Alexander himself left no permanent traces of his progress through the Panjáb and Sindh, but about the year 200 B.C., Greeks from Bactria, an outlying province of the Seleukidan Empire, once more appeared on the Indian Frontier, which they effectively occupied for more than a century. They struck the well-known Graeco-Bactrian coins; the most famous of the Indo-Greek princes were Apollodotos and Menander. Towards the close of this dynasty, parts of Sindh and Afghánistán were conquered by Sáka Scythians from Central Asia. They struck what are termed the Indo-Scythian and Indo-Parthian coins bearing names in legible Greek legends—Manes, Azes, Azilises, Gondophares, Abdagases. Both Greeks and Sákas were overthrown by the Kusháns. The extensive gold and copper Kushán currency, with inscriptions in the Greek script, contains the names of Kadphises, Kanishka, Huvishka, and others. In addition to the coins of these foreign dynasties, there are the purely Indian currencies, e.g. the coins of Táxila, and those bearing the names of such tribes as the Odumbaras, Kunindas, and Yaudheyas. The White Huns overthrew the Kushán Empire in the fifth century. After their own fall in the sixth century, there are more and more debased types of coinage such as the ubiquitous Gadhiya paisa, a degraded Sassanian type. In the ninth century we again meet with coins bearing distinct names, the "bull and horseman" currency of the Hindu kings of Kábul. We have now reached the beginning of the Muhammadan rule in India. Muhammad bin Sám was the founder of the first Pathán dynasty of Delhi, and was succeeded by a long line of Sultáns. The Pathán and Moghal coins bear Arabic and Persian legends. There were mints at Lahore, Multán, Háfizábád, Kalanaur, Deraját, Pesháwar, Srínagar and Jammu. An issue of coins peculiar to the Panjáb is that of the Sikhs. Their coin legends, partly Persian, partly Panjábí, are written in the Persian and Gurmúkhí scripts. Amongst Sikh mints were Amritsar, Lahore, Multán, Dera, Anandgarh, Jhang, and Kashmír.