228 Journal of the Asiatic Sociely of Bengal. [{N.S., XVIIT. 
tions which are written in what he chooses to call the “ regular 
monumental type.” He seems entirely to omit others which 
part is the selection not only of the test letters, but o 
test froms,—the regular contemporary monumental forms ”’ (p. 
14), we may be excused if, in this matter, we refuse to take on 
trust the views of any scholar, however great, without having 
an opportunity of judging things for ourselves. Mr. Chanda 
expresses the very laudable desire that the plates in his book 
are “intended to kelp students to draw their own conclusions, ’’ 
but as they are selected on a particular hypothesis, they are of 
little value from that point of view. In short, the plan he has 
ollowed seems to be defective, inasmuch as it does not place 
before the readers all the materials necessary for an independent 
judgment of the whole problem or of the particular views put 
ferward in the book. With these prefatory remarks we proceed 
to examine Mr. Chanda’s theory in detail. 
n order to prove the priority of the first three groups of 
inscriptions to those of the Safichi railing Mr. Chanda has made 
a comparison of the four test letters a, bha, ra and ha (p. 2). 
Following his method we consider them one by one. 
I. Regarding the shape of the letter a Mr. Chanda re- 
marks :—‘ This angle formed by the two arms of a meeting at 
a point on the vertical line is the characteristic of almost all: 
the as and @s in the edicts of Asoka, and as and as with arms 
that do not meet, but leave a little intervening space on the 
vertical line (as in line 5 of the Safichi pillar edict, Up. Ind., 
Vol. II, plate facing p. 36%) are exceptional” (p. 2). This 
does not seem to be a correct statement of facts. Even a cur- 
sory examination of the published facsimiles of the Asoka in- 
scriptions would convince anybody that “ the angle formed by 
the two arms of a meeting at a point on the vertical line” is 
not the “ characteristic of almost all the as and Gs in the edicts 
of Asoka.” Leaving aside minor varieties, at least five of 
which were distinguished by Bihler, there are three types of @ 
met with in Asoka’s edicts, viz. the two noticed by Mr. Chanda, 
and a third in which the arms meet at a point which is at a 
short distance to the left of the vertical and joined to it. by @ 
short horizontal line. Now, a general examination of the 
records shows that each of these types occurs pretty frequently, 
and none of them can be said to be the characteristic 4 or @ 
in the edict of Asoka. With a view to ascertain the propor: 
tions in which they occur in the edicts of Asoka, we have ana- 
lysed all the as and @s in the Girnar version of the Fourteen 
Rock Edicts. We find that there are forty-six examples of the 
first type, in which the arms meet on the vertical line, forty- 
four examples of the second type in which the arms do not 



