56 G. A. Grrierson — "Report on investigaUon at Bodh-GayS. [April, 



It is beyond the bounds of probability that, in writing the vowels in 

 alphabetical order, the masons should have omitted so common a letter, 

 and have substituted in its place a letter hitherto not met with in the 

 alphabet. In my opinion, if there was originally any letter on the 

 eleventh southern base, it must have been am, not ah. At any rate, Sir 

 A. Cunningham never smc any letter on the eleventh base at all, and, 

 owing to the disappearance of the base inside the wall of the gi-eat 

 Temple, it is impossible to find out the grounds of his statement. 



Regarding the alleged existence of ai on Ko. 8, and of au on No. 10, 

 though there is no proof of their ever having been there, their existence 

 is not impossible. The testimony of the Girnar rock Edict show that 

 ai, though rarely used, did exist in A9oka's Pali, and if ai existed, there 

 is no reason for au not also existing, though no instances of its existing 

 are known to occur. At any rate, whether they were there or not, 

 their presence there does not prove that, at the time of their inscription, 

 Sanskrit was a written language. 



The northern row of pillar-bases is still in existence and is acces- 

 sible for examination. Sir A. Cunningham does not say that he or 

 Mr. Beglar foand them in the sites that they now occupy. They may 

 have been found lying about amid the debris of the ruins, and put up 

 where they are now by Mr. Beglar. I enquired from old servants of 

 the Mahanth, and from Jagannath Siqgh, already referred to, who 

 informed me that they tvere found in situ. At the same time, I must 

 point out that base No. 2 is not of the same design as the rest. The 

 vase itself and the top are octagonal and not round, and the moulding 

 between the top and the vase is smaller and of a different pattern. Pos- 

 sibly it was substituted after the original pillars were erected, during 

 one of the many repairs which the Temple and its precincts have 

 undergone. 



According to Sir A. Cunningham, this row of bases was lettered as 

 follows in the Brahma alphabet : — 



Number of base ... U, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 



Letter ... ... ta, na,jha,ja, cha, ca, rja, glia, ga, kha, ka. 



Of these, according to Cunningham, only the letters on Nos. 1 (ka), 

 ^ (g(i)) ^ {cha), 8 (ja) and 11 (?fi) had, in his time, survived. The 

 others had been chipped off. I find on inspection that there are now 

 no letters on numbers 3 (ga),S (ja) and 11 (fa). If these existed in 

 Cunningham's time on the bases mentioned by him, they have since 

 been chipped off. 



On the other hand. No. 5 distinctly bears a letter shaped thus 



, which does not belong to the Pali alphabet, unless it is a 



