A coin from udbhANDapura of Fromo Kesar, the turk shAhIya ruler of gandhAra who fought the Mohammedans with much distinction.
Some believe that he lent his name to the hero of the Tibeto-Mongolian epic of Gesar Khan. He is name is interpreted as Kaiser of Roman: an odd name for a turk shAhIya ruler of gandhAra. It has been suggested that it was inspired by a Byzantine embassy that came to the region during the reign of his father Tigin to announce their victory over the Mohammedans in 719 CE and form a transnational alliance to contain the rampaging army of Islam.
After he defeated the Arabs he stamped an inscription on their coins reading:
“fromo kēsaro bago shoadēo
kido bo tazikano shorgo
odo sao bo sabago ato i mo bo gaindo”.
Fromo Kesaro, the godly (bhaga-like) shAh who defeated the Taziks (Mhds) and laid a tax [on them].
He is said to have collected a reverse of jizIya to punish the Ms. His father seems to have been shaiva based on the emblems on his coin. His brahmI inscription ran as:
shrI hiDibira kharalacha parameshvara
shrI ShAhi tigina-deva-kAritam"
It is not clear to me what the word hiDibira mean or what language they are. kharalacha is khalaj (Turk).