1883.] Kutila inscription from Monghyr. 45 



The Commander-in-Chief said that it was not surprising that the 

 profile of the ditch of the work covering the gateway of the Fort is found not 

 to be in accordance with the accepted views of Military Engineering 

 Science, as the canons of the art at the present day are, iu respect of such 

 work, almost the opposite of those obtaining at the end of the last century 

 and especially in native forts. 



Dr. HoERNLE read the following letter from Mr. E. V. Westmacott, 

 forwarding a rubbing of a Kutila inscription from Monghyr : — 



I enclose a rubbing of a Jcutila inscription of Mahi Pal Deb, which is, 

 I think, sufficiently interesting to be laid before the Asiatic Society at its 

 next meeting. It is cut on the left hand portion of a broken basalt slab, 

 which evidently formed the trabeate lintel of a doorway. The surface is 

 not sufficiently polished to enable me to take a very clear rubbing, but the 

 characters are very clear (vide Plate II). T read them S'ri Ilahi Pdla Deva 

 rdjye samvat I, and then comes a curve which is apparently part of a second 

 figure, the rest of the slab being broken off. The second rubbing is from a 

 slab of the red clay slate, which is the material from which most of the old 

 buildings of Monghyr are formed, and appears to be a mere mason's mark 

 of three letters and a figure. Neither end of the inscription is broken off, 

 and it appears to be perfect. These inscriptions have been discovered by 

 Mr. Ambler, in pulling down a ruinous Muhammadan mosque which stood 

 on his premises, occupying the north-western angle of the old fort of 

 Monghyr. The stones on which they are cut had been built into the walls 

 of the mosque, with numerous others carved with scrolls, fleur de lys, and 

 chain ornaments, some in basalt, some in clay-slate, and all having formed 

 part of a highly decorated Buddhist stupa, or, probably, as I judge from 

 the diversity of material and pattern, of more stupas than one. From the 

 size, I should think that they were small stupas, from six to ten feet high, 

 such as are found, built, I presume, as votive offerings, close to some great 

 central stupa. 



These stones discovered by Mr. Ambler form only a small portion of 

 the remains of Buddhist buildings which exist in Monghyr and the neigh- 

 bourhood. I observe carved lintels, mouldings, and ornamental bas-re- 

 liefs built into the walls and gateways of tlie fort, the drains, and most of 

 the earlier buildings. Some friezes with figures are preserved in the local 

 museum, a similar row of figures being among Mr. Ambler's stones, and I 

 am informed that carved stones are numerous on private premises in the 

 neighbourhood. 



The celebrated Monghyr copper plate of Deb Pal Deb, described in 

 the first volume of the Asiatic Researches, and referred to by me in a 

 paper on the Pal Rajas published in the Calcutta Review eight or nine 



