I58 AN ACCOUNT OF THE SCULPTURES 



offer, fome probable conjectures, at lead, if not im- 

 portant difcoveries, may, it is hoped, be made on 

 thefe interefting fubj efts'. It is much to be regretted, 

 that a blind zeal, attended with a total want of curi- 

 ofity, in the Mahommedan governors of this country, 

 have been fo hoflile to the prefervation of Hindoo mo- 

 numents and coins. But a fpiritof enquiry among 

 Europeans may yet perhaps be fuccefsful; and an in- 

 stance which relates to the place above defcribed,though 

 in itfelf a fubject of regret, leaves room to hope that 

 futurity may yet have in (lore fome ufeful difcoveries. 

 The Kauzy of Madras, who had often occafion to go 

 to a place in the neighbourhood of Mahabalipoor, af- 

 fured the writer of this account, that within his re- 

 membrance, a ryot of thofe parts had found, in plow- 

 ing his ground, a pot of gold and filver coins, with 

 characters on them which no one in thofe parts, Hindoo 

 or Mohammedan, was able to decypher. He added, 

 however, that all fearch for them would now be vain, 

 for they had doubtlefss been long ago devoted to the 

 crucible, as, in their original form, no one there thought 

 them of any value. 



The infcription on the Pagoda mentioned above, is 

 an object which, in this point of view, appears to 

 merit great attention. That the conjecture, however, 

 which places it among the languages of Siam, may not 

 feem in itfelf chimerical, the following paflages from 

 fome authors of repute are here inferted, to fhew, that 

 the idea of a communication having formerly fubfifted 

 between that country and the Coaft of Choromandel is 

 by no means without foundation ; nay, that there is 

 fome affinity, even at this day, between the Balic and 

 fome of the Hindoo languages, and that the fame mode 

 of worfhip feems formerly to have prevailed in the 

 Deckan which is now ufed by the Siamefe. 



Monjicur 



