1877.] Hajendralala Mitra — On a forged Tali Inscription. 267 



and the LodMs were perfectly unlettered, very primitive people, and it is 

 difficult to conceive that they should have retained a thorough knowledge 

 of the Lat character when every body else in all India had for centuries 

 entirely forgotten it. That a conqueror should wish to perpetuate the 

 memory of a successful war was but natural ; but one would suppose that in 

 such a case he would employ a person of his own side to write it down, and 

 not employ the priest of his enemies. Nor is there any evidence to show 

 that such a record was ever ordered by any media3val Hindu or aboriginal 

 king to be inscribed on a small metal plate. Such a plate could be seen 

 by nobody, and would be lost in no time. A large stone, or the scarp of a 

 rock, would be the proper receptacle for it ; but it was not thought of. 

 The character, too, in such a case would be that which was best known, and 

 • not what was quite unintelligible to the people of the country. How the 

 writer came to know that Pali was the name of the character, it is also difficult 

 to conceive. Prinsep, when he first dfecovered the key to the alphabet called it 

 Lat, because it occurred in its fullest extent on the Lat inscriptions of Asoka. 

 Subsequently, when it was found that the language of the records bore a 

 strong resemblance to the Pali of Ceylon some people called it Pali ; but 

 the true Pali character as still extant in Ceylon and Burmah is quite differ- 

 ent, and the name is a misleading and incorrect one. How did the Lodhis 

 commit the mistake ? The word Pali in their day would have applied to 

 the Sinhalese Pali ; and not to the character of the Lat. Supposing that 

 the Lat character was called Pali in their time, why in selecting it the Pali 

 language was not also selected ? Again, had the so-called Pali, i. e., the Lat 

 character, been then well known, why were not the Pali numerals also used ? 

 The writer evidently knew them not, and therefore employed the modern 

 Sanskrit figures slightly mystified by putting an extra scroll or two here and 

 there ? Further, the material of the record is called Kansa or " bell-metal," 

 and that metal is held by the Hindus to be impure, and never used for cere- 

 monial purposes. In the Sastras copper is the metal commended for sasanas ; 

 brass is occasionally used, but never the kansa. The speaker could not make 

 out whether the plate was of beM-metal or brass ; but he thought it looked 

 very like the latter. It was besides a rolled plate, not a hammered or cast 

 one, and bell-metal, being brittle, can neither be hammered nor rolled into 

 plates. Taking it to be brass, it should be remembered that laminating 

 rollers were perfectly unknown in India four hundred years ago, and even 

 now are known only by name from the circumstances of rolled plates being 

 brought out from England for sale in this country, and from some rollers 

 being used in the Government mints. No one in India uses rollers for lami- 

 nating brass. And this fact was alone sufficient to show that the j^late 

 was a forgery. A piece of rolled brass of the size of the plate was not worth 

 more than four annas, and punching the letters on it would not cost much 



