1834.] Note on Inscription No. 1 of the Allahabad Column. 117 



Mr. Stirling has suggested as a remarkable circumstance that many 

 letters of the No. 1 type resemble Greek characters, and he instances 

 the " ou, sigma, lambda, chi, delta, epsilon, and a something closely 

 resembling the figure of the digamma." This resemblance is, however, 

 entirely accidental, and the genus of the alphabet can I think be satis- 

 factorily shewn to have no connection whatever with the Greek. To 

 enable us to determine this point, I have taken the trouble of analyzing 

 carefully the whole of the inscription from Lieut. Burt's manuscript, 

 classifying those forms which seemed to be derived from the same radix. 



Proceeding in this manner I soon perceived that each radical 

 letter was subject to five principal inflections, the same in all, corre- 

 sponding in their nature and application with the five vowel marks of 

 the ancient Sanscrit No. 2. This circumstance alone would be suffici- 

 ent to prove that the alphabet is of the Sanscrit family, whatever the 

 language may be. In the accompanying plate (PI. V.) I have ar- 

 ranged the letters and their inflections so as to exhibit every form which 

 occurs on the column, placing numbers against each, expressive of 

 the frequency of its occurrence. From a cursory inspection of this plate 

 it will immediately be seen that the supposed sigma is but the first inflec- 

 tion of the 13th letter : the epsilon and digamma, are the same inflections 

 of the 1 8th and 1 1 th characters : while the ou and lambda ( 1 and s>) are 

 themselves subject to all the inflections like the rest, and are conse- 

 quently primitive or simple letters, of a system quite different from the 

 Greek. 



The number of alphabetical symbols is small, compared with those 

 of modern systems founded on the Sanscrit : of the thirty, several have 

 not been found subject to inflection ; these may be initial vowels. The 

 circle, square, and triangle are of a smaller size in general than the 

 rest, and may be affixes : but of this and of the powers of the letters, 

 I cannot pretend to offer any conjectures at the present moment. 

 Many of the literal forms undoubtedly bear a close resemblance to those 

 of No. 2, and to those of the Mahabalipur alphabet, decyphered by 

 Dr. Babington ; and one might almost be tempted to point out succes- 

 sively the s, d, dr, v, b, ch, j, g, t, I, from their analogy to the known 

 letters in the foregoing scheme. It is better however to say no- 

 thing on this head, until we are prepared to apply the scheme to the 

 unravelling of a portion of the legend. For this purpose, one word offers 

 a very convenient test: it is the initial word of both parts of the Allaha- 

 bad inscription (see pi. V.) ; — of all the four inscriptions on the Delhi 

 column ; and it also occurs a second time on the east side. I have insert- 

 ed it at the foot of Plate VI. It will probably be found to be some term 

 of invocation, though essentially different from the Sri of the Hindus. 



