A CARNELIAN INTAGLIO SEAL FROM SHAH KAS, KHYBER: KUSHAN INVESTITURE IMAGERY AND KHAROṢṬHĪ INSCRIPTIONAL EVIDENCE

Abstract

This article presents a preliminary study of a carnelian intaglio seal from Shah Kas, Khyber, known through the engraved stone and its modern impression. The seal depicts a complex Kushan-period investiture scene: a four-armed standing male deity, best identified as Oešo/Oesho or a closely related Śiva-type Kushan deity, conferring a fillet or diadem upon a kneeling royal or noble figure accompanied by an attendant. The iconography recalls Kushan religious and royal imagery, especially second-century CE investiture scenes in which divine authority is visually transferred to a ruler. The visible inscriptional remains, arranged vertically in the right field, may tentatively preserve the sequence ka-sa-va / sha-la-ra / pu-tra-sa. The first group may be read as Kasava, possibly related to the Gāndhārī/Kharoṣṭhī form of Kāśyapa, or alternatively as Kasasa; a more hypothetical reading as Kushana/Kuṣāṇa may also be considered, though all such readings require further palaeographic confirmation. The element pu-tra-sa may correspond to putrasa, “of the son,” or may belong to a broader royal or elite titulary formula such as devaputrasa. On iconographic grounds, especially the kneeling figure before a deity and the close comparison with the Peshawar intaglio seal discussed by Mukherjee and later by Gul Rahim Khan and Naheed Zahra, the seal under discussion may be attributed cautiously to the Kushan period, most plausibly within the Huvishka or closely related second-century CE horizon.