1884.] Exhibition of day seals from Ludiana. 137 



Dr. Hoernle exhibited a collection of so-called ' clay seals' sent for 

 examination by Mr. Carr Stephen of Ludiana. They were stated by 

 Mr. Stephen to have been "discovered in and near the village of Sonait, 

 mostly in mounds cut up by rain water or excavations made by the vil- 

 lagers." 



Dr. Hoernle made the following remarks : — " I have carefully ex- 

 amined them and found them much more interesting than objects of 

 this kind, of which many have been found and shown to the Society on 

 several previous occasions, generally prove to be. Those hitherto found 

 have generally been Buddhistic, bearing Buddhist emblems and the well- 

 known Buddhist creed. Most of those, and perhaps all, sent by Mr. 

 Stephen are distinctly Brahmanic ; a large number bear the dedicatory 

 formula S'ankara-Ndrdyandbhyd\_?)i~\ " to S'ankara and JSarayana" and 

 many others bear the trisul emblem of Siva. There are about 50 of 

 these so-called seals in the collection. They may be divided into 27 

 different classes. In one class there are 14 duplicates, those dedicated 

 to S'ankar and Narayan. In a few others there are from 2 to 4 dupli- 

 cates : but in most classes there is only one specimen. In the case of 

 some of the latter, it is not possible to determine the reading of the in- 

 scription with absolute certainty. The points of peculiar interest, how- 

 ever, in this collection are the following : 



1. A few of the seals bear inscriptions or emblems on both sides, 

 while those hitherto found have had them only on one side. Thus 

 there are two specimens which bear on the obverse : S'ankara-Ndrdyand- 

 bhyd[?n~], and on the reverse: Vislinucldsasya. The former inscription 

 names the gods to whom the object is dedicated, the latter, the person 

 who dedicated it. These, moreover, would seem to prove that the 

 opinion of those who take these ' seals ' to be diminutive votive tablets 

 is correct. There is another specimen in the collection, which has 

 on the obverse ; S'ankara-Ndrdya?idbhyd[jn~], and on the reverse, what 

 seems to be mdtrih (*TTS:), but what is perhaps to be read mdtuh 

 famO ' *• e - ' ^ ne v °ti ve tablet of the mother, dedicated to S'ankar and 

 Narayan.' As there is only one specimen of this particular kind, it is 

 not possible to determine with certainty the reading on the reverse. 

 The reverse also bears S'iva's emblem of the trisula, an emblem which is 

 shown also on many other specimens in the collection. 



2. Several of the seals bear inscriptions which clearly prove that 

 they were expressed, not in Sanskrit, as might be thought at first sight, 

 but in that literary form of the ancient North Western Prakrit (or Pali) 

 which is now commonly known as the so-called ' Gatha dialect,' and in 

 which, for example, also the Indo- Scythian Inscriptions found at Mathura 

 are composed. In such small legends, consisting of only two or three 



