ON ANCIENT MONUMENTS. SQ^ 



what has been the succession of doctrines, rehgious and 

 philosophical, which have prevailed in a nation ingeni- 

 ous yet prone to superstition. 



UNFORTUNATELY, writers have seldom given the 

 dates of their compositions : and the Hindu s love of 

 fable, and distaste for sober narrative, have been as un- 

 friendly to the biography of authors, as to the history 

 of princes. The lives of few celebrated persons have 

 been written, and those, which have been composed, 

 exhibit the same fondness for improbable fiction, which 

 pervades the mythological works of the Hindus. The 

 age of an author must be therefore sought from circum- 

 stances mentioned in his writings : and none more fre- 

 quently affords the desired information, than the au- 

 thor's notice of his patron ; who generally is either the 

 sovereign of the country, or some person standincr in 

 such relation to the court, as gives occasion to mention 

 the nanie of the reigning prince. Thus every ancient 

 monument, which fixes the date of a reign, or deter- 

 mines the period of a particular dynasty, tends to the 

 ascertainment of the age of writers who flourished in 

 that reign or under that dynasty : and, conversely, 

 wherever dates can be with confidence deduced imme- 

 diately from an author's work^, these may furnish his- 

 torical information and assist the explanation of ancient 

 monuments. 



On this account the preservation and study of old 

 Inscriptions may be earnestly recommended. It is not 

 on a first or cursory examination, that the utility of 

 any paiticular monument for the illustration of the civil 

 or hterary history of the country can be certainly de- 

 termined. Even those, which at first sight appear un- 

 interesting, may be afterwards found to bear strongly on 

 an important point. Instances might be brought from 

 the few inscriptions, which have been alreadv published. 



