1834.] Pillar at Allahabad. 109 



"With respect to the specimen of the inscription on the pillar at Alla- 

 habad (shewn at page 180, volume VII. As. Res.) I beg to say that, that 

 part which originally, or when it was copied in June 1797, was adja- 

 cent to the Persian writer's name " Abdullah," no longer exists, and 

 has evidently peeled off ; some of the letters I can find to agree, both of 

 the stone and the specimen, but only a few, as most of the others are 

 manifestly incorrect, as may be seen by comparing the specimen with 

 the full copy now sent ; the former should therefore be only looked 

 upon as a partly correct and partly incorrect specimen of the character 

 chosen here and there, and not as an exact copy of any part of the in- 

 scription ; indeed, the line in this character which is situated above the 

 Persian in Captain Ho are's specimen, does not now appear upon the 

 column at all. 



The inscription No. 1 , (which is evidently of the same character with 

 that upon the latji at Delhi,) is in many parts illegible, chiefly because 

 the outer surface of the stone has peeled off to the depth of one- 

 eighth or one-fifth of an inch from those parts, caused probably in the 

 first instance by the effect of the hammer and chisel, or other instru- 

 ment used in engraving the inscription, so as to have either cracked or 

 loosened the general surface to the depth of the letters cut ; which 

 surface, although not at the time apparently injured, might have become, 

 in suffering frequent alternations of heat, cold and damp, so loose in 

 some parts, as at last to peel and fall off in flakes. 



The natives state, some that the unknown character is Marhatta, 

 others that it is Punjabi, and that although no one at this place can now 

 read it, a traveller from Bombay took a copy of it some years ago, and 

 said that he could read and decipher the character ; I requested my 

 brother to make inquiries at Benares, and I have also written to 

 Cawnpur, near to which the Mahratta Prince Bajee Rao is stationed, 

 with a hope of procuring information, but without effect. 



The size of the letters of the ancient Sanscrit character No. 2, was 

 about an inch in height and an inch more or less in breadth, and of the 

 unknown character No. 1, nearly the same. 



One part of the unknown character No. 1 similar in every respect to 

 to that on the Delhi lat,h, is situated above the Persian writing on the left 

 hand side of the drawing No. 1. and consists of but a small portion of the 

 different letters engraven on the stone. 



wrong reading for |*^ . Shahryur is the 6th month, and falls in August. The Hijri 

 also, Rabi-uss&ni 1014, corresponds with the same month. Akber died on tbe 13th 

 of Rabi-uss ni 1014, (= 21 August, 1605 ;) he inscription therefore must have 

 been cut within a few days of this event ; — the coronation of Jehangir did not 

 take place till Jamddi 2, or two months later. — Ed. 



