A Gold Coin Sets a Trail Ablaze
Suchandra Ghosh
KUSHAN MYSTIQUE by David Jongeward Spink and Son, London, 2020, 248 pp., $45.00
April 2022, volume 46, No 4

A story of many sojourns, Kushan Mystique is a narrative of a cultural anthropologist David Jongeward who got attracted to Kushan history and Gandharan art and developed the symptoms of ‘Kushanitis’. Now what is this ‘Kushanitis’? In a delightful foreword, Joe Cribb, formerly of the British Museum, explains this term by saying that it is a condition of mind which afflicts a person and spreads easily when one comes into direct contact with the puzzle of the Kushan kings. Cribb suffered from this condition and left an indelible mark on the study of Kushan coins.

This book is partly a memoir, to a large extent a travelogue and a peep into the passionate and crazy world of curators and collectors. It is not to be read just for gathering knowledge about a Central Asian nomadic group who built an empire which traversed both Central Asia and the regions of South Asia. It should be read to marvel at the Kushans, to savour the journey of knowing the Kushans by a cultural anthropologist through the lens of people suffering from ‘Kushanitis’ and objects like coins and sculptures.  While on board this journey, one gets initiated into Kushan history: the Da Yuezhi nomadic group, the transition from a nomadic past to the formation of sedentary empire, the glory of the empire and what not. David Jongeward is a superb narrator. The pages are filled with minute details, but not once do they allow you to feel their burden. It was Dr Craig Burns, a passionate collector of Kushan coins in Northern California who introduced the author to the world of Kushans when he placed a gold coin depicting a king with flaming shoulders in his hand. Jongeward had absolutely no clue then but felt drawn towards it.ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”block” ihc_mb_who=”unreg” ihc_mb_template=”1″ ]

In the chapter on the British Museum, he writes about his growing interest in Kushan coins thanks to the unending sessions of discussion with none other than Joe Cribb. For the uninitiated Jongeward provides a brief chapter on the Kushan kings. The description of the entry into the world of original coins is fascinating.  The beautiful photographs are a visual treat.[

In the chapter on Curators, the personality of Joe Cribb, the curator comes alive in his narrative. Added to that is a brief bio note about Cribb which explains the inherent passion of one of the leading numismatists of our times. A coin-centred research methodology was developed by Cribb where he let the ‘coins speak first’ and then in his own words, ‘after satisfying myself that I learnt as much as possible from the coins themselves, I go to the books and archaeological and art history reports.’ The discovery and reading of the remarkable Rabatak Inscription (in the Baghlan area of northern Afghanistan) which opened up new avenues to Kushan studies is also discussed here.

One of the chapters called ‘Return’ reads like watching a scene from a James Bond movie when the author discusses how Craig Burns with his wife Eleanor, an artist herself, shipped his entire collection of coins from their Californian home to Bernisches Historisches Museum in Berne, Switzerland. Why remote Berne and not the British Museum, or for that matter any other reputed museum, has also been discussed.

The book has moments of pathos and sentimentality. Dr Craig Burnes was afflicted with cancer and invited David to visit him. Despite being a doctor himself, he refused the treatment offered by other doctors and developed his own curious method of treating himself with measured amounts of ‘potassium cyanide’ which left our author speechless, hurt and embarrassed as he did not know what to do. The parting gifts were a thoroughly annotated copy of John Rosenfield’s The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans and two books on the Kushans by BN Mukherjee, the well-known historian of Kushan studies in India and a dozen or more copper Kushan coins. Craig did not part with his copy of Robert Göbl’s Atlas with a promise to send it when the final hour arrived.

For those interested in Kushan studies, one big take away from this book is the chapter entitled ‘The Arrogant Academic’ where the author shares with the reader letters exchanged between him and Robert Göbl which help to peep into the mind of the famous numismatist. Moreover, the chapter also discusses the life and works of Göbl who was a Professor at the University of Vienna and Chair of Numismatics. Göbl’s scathing criticism about British numismatists, particularly their inability to read other languages, also comes through in the discussion. To quote him, ‘In the last millennium, and in the millennium to come, the English language alone is not enough for anyone pretending to be a scientist.’ In Göbl a different kind of cultural imperialism is revealed when he says, ‘You pretend to be a scholar? Learn German.’ The chapter gives us a glimpse of a conversation between an interested student and a senior Professor, renowned in his field and steadfast in his own law. Ultimately it was a happy experience for Jongeward.

The next chapter introduces us to a personality called Hakim Hamidi who is called ‘The Gentleman’s Gentleman’. This chapter is a fascinating read where the author has tried to get answers to many curious symbols demonstrated on the coins of the Kushan rulers from Mr Hamidi, the local knowledgeable collector in Kabul, an official/banker with a deep interest in Kushan coins. The following pages are riveting accounts of a trip to Pakistan, the splendour of its bazaars full of ancient coins, a collector’s dream. But with this, a sense of despair and uneasiness are visible when the author talks about illicit digging, looting, tragic loss of artefacts due to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It was wonderful to see a chapter dedicated to Elizabeth Errington, lovingly called Liz who to my mind is erudition and dignity personified. A silent researcher, a go-to person for anything related to Gandhara and as rightly said by Joe Cribb, the ‘Mother of Gandhara’ after the demise of Francine Tissot who was adorned with this epithet. Jongeward gives a succinct account of Elizabeth Errington’s works, life beyond professional pursuits and finally the famous Masson project. We are also introduced to Charles Masson, the pioneering archaeologist and numismatist of the early and mid-nineteenth century. Errington took up the work on the Masson collection and eight volumes of Masson manuscripts in the India Office collections of the British library.

The next two chapters talk about Pakistan archaeology and Kushan gods respectively. While the first is a guided tour with a passionate guide who leaves no stone unturned to give a taste of the history of the place, the second is indeed a feast for students who are interested in the deities represented on Kushan coins. I wish I could take this archaeological tour with the author!

The book then takes us to the collections of Gandhara art objects of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. In between we are told about the project of American Numismatic Society with Joe Cribb, their spectacular collections of coins that could match the British Museum collection. As the travel tale progresses, many layers in the study and collection of antiquities and production of knowledge unfold in front of us. There are stories within stories. This book is also about a passionate man who could take to odd jobs to keep his passion going and there is a slice of social history of the English in there, e.g., the hierarchy among carpenters. He also points out the neglect of the Kushans, contemporary of the Romans, in the curricula of western schools. He very rightly points towards Eurocentrism in the past and the change in the attitude in many universities in the recent past.

The final chapter is an introspection, a search, as a Kushan coin in hand opened up a new world for him. This new world made him travel from California to London, Vienna, Los Angeles, Peshawar, New York, Oxford and Toronto. I joined him and I must confess that travelling with David Jongeward was a rewarding journey; revisiting the Coins and Medals section of the British Museum and the Gandhara Art section of Ashmolean Museum through his oeuvre was an amazing experience. Kushan Mystique is a must read for those who love historical narrative and celebrate passion.

Suchandra Ghosh is in the Department of History, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad.[/ihc-hide-content]