Vishnu nicolo seal | |
---|---|
Material | Agate (nicolo) |
Created | 4th century CE |
Discovered |
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
Pakistan 34°00′N 71°19′E / 34°N 71.32°E |
Present location | British Museum, London |
Registration | 1892,1103.98 |
The Vishnu nicolo seal is a "finely engraved" oval agate seal (1.4 inches by 1.05 inch) from the Gandhara region, dated to the 4th century CE. Since 1892 it has been in the British Museum. [1] Nicolo is an abbreviation of the Italian onicolo, meaning "little onyx", a type of stone, often made of different layers in various shades of blue, used for intagli. [2]
The seal depicts a four-armed deity, probably Vishnu or Vāsudeva, [3] being prayed by a royal devotee. The deity holds Vishnu's classical attributes: the gada club, the chakra discus, the wheel and the lotus. [4] [5] [1] There is a two-line inscription and a monogram by the worshipper's feet. [1]
The British Museum describes the inscription as " Bactrian", transliterating it: "(1) saso reo iastoo (2) algo", translated as: "Sas-re(w) the leader of worship (?)". [1]
It was found in what was then the North-West Frontier Province of British India, now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa of Pakistan. [1]
The seal was first reported by Alexander Cunningham in The Numismatic Chonicle of 1893. [4] [6] Cunningham, saw in the devotee the Kushan emperor Huvishka, who reigned about 140-180 BC, based on the similarity of the headdress. [5]
More recently Roman Ghirshman proposed that the text on the seal was in the Kushan script and mentions three major Hindu gods:
A more recent interpretation suggests the divinity is Vāsudeva, an early deity whose attributes were later reused in the iconography of Vishnu with the addition of an aureole. [3] [8]
This recent research also identified the devotee, not with Huvishka, but with a Huna king. [6] [5] The devotee could also be a Kushano-Sasanian or a Kidarite prince. [9]
The seal also suggest that a composite cult of the three deities Surya (another name for Mihira, meaning "Sun"), Vishnu and Shiva was current in India circa 500 CE. [6] However, the British Museum in 2019 gives a different reading of the inscription. [1]
Line | Original ( Greco-Bactrian script) | Transliteration | English translation |
---|---|---|---|
1 | σασο ρηο ιαþτoo | saso reo iastoo | "Sas-re(w) the leader of worship (?)" |
2 | αλγo | algo |
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A seal inscribed in Bactrian, fourth to fifth century AD, shows a Kushano - Sasanian or Kidarite official worshipping Vishnu : Pierfrancesco Callieri, Seals and Sealings from the North - West of the Indian Subcontinent and Afghanistan.