Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (New Series) 1926

He then added: " The equal-armed Cross cut out in low relief under the inscribed belt is similar to that found at the Mount and that the sculpture seems to be of a slightly later date but this question of age will have to be decided by Pahlavi scholars on a consideration of the script engraved in the record in question." As to the situation of the Church in winch the Cross is found the partic [...] It seems that he was properly informed by his guide or guides at the caves that the characters were those of the Magous or Magis but he did not properly understand the word to take it for the characters of the Persian Magi or Mobads."14 It seems that just as in the case of the Malabar Coast Crosses so in the case of the Kanheri and other caves in the neighbourhood the Brahmins in charge of th [...] But I think that it is perhaps the difficulty of engraving in a limited space the long shape of z as it should be written in the beginning of a word that may have led the engraver to use the form of the letter as it occurs in the middle of a word. [...] I therefore think that the Crosses may be the offerings of some of the Christians who had come to the shores of India in the middle or latter part of the seventh century and in the eighth century owing to the persecution of the Arabs and in referring to the afflictions of Christ they allude to their own afflitions of being compelled to leave their country for their faith. [...] The distinction of the various denominations and the fractional subdivision of the principal units of the currency is also as clearly marked if not even more meticulous and exhaustive than in the etainpages of the Pathan Emperors or in any other type or variety of the Indo-Muhammadan Coinage.