1891.] Philological Secretary — Buddhist chaitya. 119 



her left hand resting on her hip, and holding an open flower in her right. 

 The obverse legend on this variety has never been read ; nor does the 

 present specimen afford much help ; only sf^I^ rf^lW^ prithivitaldm-para 

 can be read, apparently about one-third of the entire legend. The two 

 other specimens belong to the third variety which shows the same god- 

 dess feeding a peacock with her right, while in her left she holds a 

 lotus-flower. One is a rather poor specimen, with nearly the entire 

 legend lost. The other is much better, and apparently preserves the 

 entire legend, in the following, somewhat curious form : ^f?r (read fwfrT) 

 'ffrK.f^fft f^^^«?IT T KsMtipatir ajito vi[jaya-Kumdra] Gu. The 

 portion enclosed in brackets is mutilated, the rest is perfect. The 

 legend commences with hsM on the right hand margin, between the 

 king's head and the horse's neck ; it closes with gu close behind the 

 king's head. There is no space for the complementary aksharas Sf; ptah. 

 The form of the legend, therefore, is here shorter than usual. 



The Philological Secretary exhibited a Buddhist chaitya of 

 bronze, which was purchased by the Society from its finder through 

 Babu Tarakhnath Roy. It is said to have been found together with 

 two inscribed copper-plates several years ago at the village of Ashraf- 

 pur, near Raipur, in the Dacca district, during the process of levelling a 

 mound in the neighbourhood of a tank. One of the copper-plate inscrip- 

 tions was published by Dr. Mitra, as long ago as 1885 (see Fro- 

 ceedings of that year, for March, p. 49). The other copper-plate was 

 purchased by the Society last year from the finder, a villager named 

 Mir Khan. It was also being prepared for publication by Dr. Mitra, 

 and will now be published by myself. Both inscriptions are dated 

 in the same year, viz.j Samvat 13 ; the first in Vaisakha 13, the other 

 in Paushadha 25. There is nothing in the inscriptions to determine to 

 which era the date 13 should be referred. From the shape of the cha- 

 racters, which is that of the so-called Kutila, the inscriptions may be 

 referred to the eighth or ninth century or perhaps somewhat later. 

 The Newar era of Nepal, which commences with 880 A. D., might fit 

 the date; and it would then be equivalent to 893 A. D. But this 

 may be left to further determination, hereafter, when the copper- plates 

 are published. It may be noted, however, that the date was wrongly 

 read by Dr. Mitra in 1885, as being Samvat 713. What he read as the 

 numeral 7, is really the final consonant t of Samvat ; and the two other 

 symbols are not those for 1 and 3, but for 10 and 3. The symbols are 

 those of the older numeral system of nutation, which had separate signs 

 for the units, tens, hundreds, etc., and which was still employed in India 

 for epigraphical purposes as late as the eighth and ninth centuries of the 



