A LETTER FROM CHARLES WILKIN'S, ScC, 2^Q 



A LETTER 



FROM 



CHARLES WILKINS, Esq. 



TO 



THE SECRETARY. 



DEAR SIR, 



TTAVING been fo fortunate as to make out the 

 ■*•-*- whole of the very curious Infcription you were 

 fo obliging as to lend me, I herewith return it, accom- 

 panied by an exa£t Copy, in a reduced fize, interlined 

 with each correfponding letter in the modern Dewnagar 

 character ; and alfo a Copy of my Tranflation, which is 

 as literal as the idioms would admit it to be. 



The character is undoubtedly the mod ancient of any 

 that have hitherto come under my infpection. It is 

 not only diffimilar to that which is now in ufe, but 

 even very materially different from that we find in. 

 infcriptions of eighteen hundred years ago. But though 

 the writing be not modern, the language is pure Sam- 

 Jkreet, written in a long verfe, called Sardddla-veekree- 

 reeta, and confifts of four paufes, of nineteen fyllables 

 each, in this form : 



---W O-U-O O y_..(j-- w _ 1 » - - y o-o-o O 0---«.-y- 

 - - - U y-O-O U y---(j--U- 1 - - - O U-U-U U 0"--U-»U- 



The metre was no fmall help in decyphering the 

 vowels. 



The 



