CONTATNIKG SANSCRIT INSCRIPTIONS. 405 



TRANSLATION. 



1. In that * eminent and spotless family, was born, 

 an ornament of the learned, renowned throucfhout the 

 world, endowed with science, and practising good 

 deeds, the celebrated, happy, and venerable He'd'i -}-; 

 in whose pure mind, virtue ever ranges, like a swan in 

 the limpid lake. 



2. From him sprung the happy chief of ministers, 

 who exhibits the joys of unsullied glory i a spotless 

 moon, among mortals, and at sight of whom the hare- 

 spotted luminary % appears swoln [with envy,] and 

 distempered with alternate increase and wane. 



3. That venerable officer ^, ever relying on holy 

 virtues ||, is eminently conversant with well guided 

 morals, and conspicuous for the observance of practical 

 duties. 



4. Himself an oce?.n of generosity and meditation, 



* This use of the pronoun indicates the con.spicuousuess ot" t'le 

 object ; as if sufficiently known without further designation. 



t Here, as well as wiih the subsequent names, the j^a! tide cva 

 is subjoined without changing the preceding vowel. This is con- 

 trary to the rules of the language^ and emendations have been ac- 

 cordingly proposed : but I ahall not disturb the text. 



X The moon is named Sason, from a fancied reseniblattice of its 

 spots to a leveret. Pandits, to whom I showed maps of the moon, 

 copied from HrvELiusand Ricciolus, fixed upon the Lo»a Pahido<a 

 and Mons Porphxrites, or Keplekus and Aristarchus, for the 

 spots, which, they think, exhibit the similitude of a hare. 



§ The term is Ard^aiiibj^ur/iica, which the P<7wii^5 are disposed to 

 explain as signifying " a general commanding cavalry." Other 

 interpretations may be suggested : the word is an unusual one. 



fl This, as indeed the whole of the verse, is obscure, and ad- 

 mits of various interpretations. In this place, more than one read» 

 iug has been pro^ oscd. 



2 D 3 



