1895.] Alexander E. Caddy — Asoka Inscriptions in India. 153 



The following is Mr. Caddy's general report : — 



Dated Calcutta, the 22nd August 1895. 



From — Alexander E. Caddy, Esq., on Special Duty, 

 To — The Secretary to the Government of Bengal, Revenue 

 Department. 



I have the honour to submit a general report of the tour I have 

 just completed and of the operations connected therewith. 



2. His Honour w^as pleased to depute me to visit the several sites 

 of the Asoka inscriptions in Bengal enumerated below, and to bring 

 away plaster casts of each inscription. I was also required to photo- 

 graph the locale of these inscriptions and other objects of allied in- 

 terest : — 



I & II. — The two Champaran columns, north and south of Bettiah. 

 III. — The Sasaram rock edict, in Shahabad. 



IV. — The dedicatory tablets of the JBarabar and Nagarjtmi 

 caves — seven in number — in the district of Gaya. 

 V. — The inscribed rock at Jaugado in Ganjam, in the Madras 

 Presidency. 

 VI. — The inscribed rock at DJiauli, about 25 miles due south of 



Cuttack. 

 VII. — The inscrijDtion of Alva Baja in the cave at Udaigiri, about 



6 miles north of Bhauli. 

 VIII. — The dedicatory and descriptive tablets in the Udaigiri 

 caves — nine in number. 



3. At a committee held in your rooms previous to this appoint- 

 ment, at which Sir Alfred Croft and Mr. Jobbins were present, it was 

 determined that the casts should be in plaster of Paris, and that the 

 moulds should be brought to Calcutta and worked out. 



My deputation commenced on the 15th October, and I was provided 

 with a staff of two modellers, a plaster man, and Jchalasi. 



Messrs. Mackintosh, Burn, and Company were to supply me all wath 

 the gypsum I wanted, as my plaster had to be prepared on the spot. 



4. My first care had been to study the properties of gypsum and the 

 several processes of converting it into plaster. Mr. Briihl, of the Civil 

 Engineering College at Sibpur, helped me in this considerably, and we 

 determined that the Madras method, as described by Dr. Hunter in one 

 of the 1851 numbers of an Art journal published in Madras, was the 

 best. 



5. I had seen my modellers at work, but not with satisfaction as 

 to their method : it took too much time ; and I consequently devised 

 means whereby a quantity of plaster may be dealt with at once and 

 efficiently. 



