1834.] Pillar at Allahabad. Ill 



1640, or 250 years; another 1762, or 128 years ; another 1863, or 27 

 years ; another Samvat 1638, or 252 years since. 



On examining all the 18 volumes of the As. Res. I am happy to 

 say I have found, or at least partly found a key to the character No. 2 ; 

 in the transcript and interpretation of an ancient inscription at Gya, by 

 Dr. Wilkins, vol. I. page 279. This will evidently serve as a guide, by 

 which nearly half of the letters can be made out, as is evident on inspec- 

 tion ; and it may therefore be assumed as likely that Dr. Wilkins at 

 home, or any Sanscrit scholar in this country, has in his possession means 

 of reading and translating the whole of this at present unknown inscrip- 

 tion, No. 2 ; which from what the Doctor says as applied to the Gya in- 

 scription will probably prove to be composed of fine Sanscrit, and to be more 

 than 1 800 years old. It may indeed have a still greater age, because 

 some of the letters of the character No. 2 appear of a more illegible na- 

 ture than those of the Gya sculpture, although manifestly of the same 

 description. It must therefore have been engraven upon the column 

 long before the two Persian lines before spoken of, which bear a date 

 no farther back than 228 years, or A. H. 1014. 



In the description of the Ellora Caves, in the 6th volume As. Res. no 

 specimens of the inscription are given, but on reference to the fac similes 

 of some of these in the 5th volume, I find that a few letters correspond 

 with No., 2. 



There is also I think a resemblance to the character No. 2, on a pillar 

 at Buddal, which has been translated by Dr. Wilkins in the 1st volume 

 As. Res. page 131, and a still greater similarity strikes me in the Mon- 

 ghir inscription, also translated by the same learned scholar in that 

 volume. 



I have thought it necessary to send a copy of part of the Gya inscrip- 

 tion, which has been translated, together with the modern character 

 written beneath it, as given by Dr. Wilkins in page 178, in order that 

 it maybe compared with the inscription No. 2, of this pillar. It seems to 

 me to be exactly the same character, but perhaps less antique. Mr. 

 Harington says, the pundits at Benares could not read the Gya inscrip- 

 tion, but Dr. Wilkins has read it. Mr. Harington observes, that ano- 

 ther inscription of one line only exists there, of a different character, and 

 unintelligible. Perhaps this may be similar to No. 1, and it would be 

 interesting to ascertain the fact through the aid of some of the corre- 

 spondents of the Journal. Query. Has it any connection with the Greek 

 character, to which No. 1 bears some similitude, in the Greek letters 

 \v a e at F some of which are mentioned by Mr. Stirling, at page 312, 

 As. Res. volume XV. viz. the " ou, sigma, lambdu, chi, delta, epsilon, and 



