268 Dr. B.G. Babwgton's Account of Sculptures, S^c. at Mahdmalaipur, 



are, in my opinion, ancient forms of the Grantha, or that character in 

 which Sanscrit is invariably written in the South of India, and in which 

 alone I was able to procure books for study at Madras. The other two will 

 probably be considered as species of ancient Devandgari. (See PL 15, No. 

 2 and 3.) 



This variety of character, with identity of matter, leads me to think it 

 probable that tlie inscription itself was a kind of general proclamation 

 sculptured in different places, and modified, as in my inscription, to render 

 it applicable to local circumstances. Whether it will throw light upon the 

 history of Mahdmalaipur, containing as it does the name of the sovereign 

 who founded the temples to which it has been affixed, is a question which I 

 must leave to be examined by those who have studied the ancient dynasties 

 of the South of India. 



A third kind of character at Mahdmalaipur, or a sixth kind, if we reckon 

 those received from Madras and from Col. De Havilland, is to be found in 

 the inscriptions over the basso-relievo figures which ornament the monolithic 

 pogodas already mentioned as situated to the southward of the village, and 

 of which several are represented in Plate IG. Neither the Jain Brahman 

 employed by Col. Mackenzie, nor any other native of India who had seen 

 these inscriptions, was able to decypher them, or to offer any conjecture as 

 to the language in which they were written ; and even the learned Mr. 

 Ellis, after repeated visits to this place, was equally unsuccessful in his 

 endeavours. Mrs. Graham, indeed, states that Col. Mackenzie had found 

 a Brahman who read the character so as to pronounce the sounds, but did 

 not understand the language they express. Whether any person did actually 

 thus impose on that gentleman, or whether Mrs. Graham has confounded 

 these inscriptions with the last, I cannot determine, but it is quite certain 

 that, if any person had been able to decypher the character, he would, 

 without any difficulty, have discovered the language to be Sanscrit. It was 

 by assuming this to be the case, that I succeeded in decyphering these 

 inscriptions.* 



I beg now to lay them before the Society, together with a transcript in 

 Devandgari, and a translation. (See Plate I7.) 



• There is one instance, as will be seen on a reference to Plate 17, in which the characters 

 are of the same kind as those in the inscription of the Ganes'd Pagoda, a proof that both were 

 in use at the same period. It is probable therefore that one was the round, and the other the 

 square form, ^analogous to the two varieties of Pali and Arij/am. 



