112 Description of the Ancient [March, 



a something closely resembling a figure of the digamma*." The Khandgir 

 inscription appears to resemble the Allahabad character exactly in my 

 opinion. 



Dr. W. says of this inscription No. 2, "The character is undoubtedly 

 the most ancient of any that have hitherto come under my inspection ; — it 

 is not only dissimilar to that which is now in use, but even very mate- 

 rially different from that we find in inscriptions of eighteen hundred 

 years ago ; but though the writing be not modern, the language is 

 pure Sanscrit, written in a long verse called Sardoola vikririta, 

 and consists of four pauses of nineteen syllables each, in this form," — 

 (which the Doctor gives) — they appear to be feet consisting of a mo- 

 lassas, a pyrrhic, a trochee, a tribrach, a molassas, a bacchias, and an 

 iambus. The Doctor states that the metre was no small help in deci- 

 phering the words, and this will probably be found to be the case in the 

 Allahabad inscription, as the letters composing the character, are chiefly 

 equidistant from one another, without the appearance of stops. I have 

 strong reason for thinking No. 2 to be verse, because several lines end 

 with the same letter, which appears indicative of rhyme. It is probably 

 of a mythological character. See also p. 357, recording the translation 

 of a partly similar inscription found at the fort of Tanna. 



The character at page 500 of this volume (xv. As. Res.) is not far dif- 

 ferent from the one line of inscription, No. 5, copied, as it appears, on 

 the stone, viz. at right angles to the rest of the character, for both bear 

 a peculiarly square appearance. See Alphabet of the same at p. 506, 

 furnished by Mr. H. H. Wilson, from which this also may perhaps be 

 decipheredf. 



In the As. Res. vol. vi. page 447, Captain John Mackenzie 

 sends a copy of the inscription found by him at Ceylon on a block of 

 stone much corroded by time, but which he made out by tracing chunam, or 

 lime water on the hollow characters indented in the rock, which render- 

 ed them legible on the dark ground of the stone. I think it would be 

 a better plan in a similar case to pass a cloth or brush damped in lime- 

 water, rapidly over the general surface of the stone, for when the lime 

 dries white, every dark letter will appear distinctly contrasted with the 

 white surface, because the letters themselves are not to be wetted, but 

 only their projecting interstices. 



The Ceylon inscription is probably old Sanscrit also, as it resembles 

 No. 2 in some of the letters. 



* See note at the end of this paper. — En. 



t See Plate vi. at the right hand near the bottom. 



