1834.] on the Allahabad Column. 261 



To the Devanagari transcript is annexed a close interlineary version, 

 in the only language (one excepted) whose freedom of collocation and 

 general analogy to Sanscrit made it available for this purpose — distin- 

 guishing always by brackets the version of the intercalated or added 

 syllables, the necessity of which will thus be often apparent to the 

 Western reader. I have now to subjoin a somewhat looser version in 

 English — to which I would prefix merely the following brief analysis of 

 the insci-iption. 



line. 1 .Unintelligible, and most probably unconnected with what follows. 

 2, 3. Invocation in behalf of the sculptor andblackener of the letters 

 of the inscription. 

 4 — 12. Various descriptions, at first dependent on the relatives yas, 

 yasya (who and whose), but afterwards governed by the ante- 

 cedent personal pronoun sa, (he,) all of which evidently relate to 

 the same person, and that the king — but which, from the incom- 

 pleteness of the lines, and the absence of verbs governing the 

 principal substantives, cannot be traced in their conjunct mean- 

 ing as one sentence, which itis evident they must have composed. 

 13 — 2 7. Panegyrical descriptions of the same king in the genitive case, 

 (connected at first with the nominatives of line 13, but after- 

 wards evidently with the Pillar-Arm at the conclusion,) viz. 

 Samudra Gupta, son of Chandra-Gupta, of the Solar race, all 

 sufficiently perfect and intelligible. 

 28. Comparison of the king's glory to the sacred water of the ne- 

 thermost Ganges in the Mahabharata. 

 28, 29. Name and description of the self-satisfied author of this pane- 

 gyric, (whose intellect, as he tells us himself, was utterly sub- 

 verted by his intimacy with the great king, when he ventured 

 on this composition,) concluding with a salutation to the Deity. 

 Then, after a very wide space, comes 



30. A compliment, somewhat obscure and imperfect, to the author's 

 immediate superior and patron. 



Translation. 



1. The jackal [left the b~]ear in the forest. (?) 



2. This goodly s[ign] of one endued by nature with a mind of fire having 



been, for the conveyance of his commands, covered over with ink; may 

 the ma[ker also] fixed [as the letters themselves by the durability and 

 immortality of the monument he has raised, viz.] 



3. The [king's] dependant Vitka, having formed these [letters] for the 



love of the multiplied virtues of the son of the bow-armed givA [viz. 

 Ganesa patron of letters] enjoy in heaven, even in the city of Vedhas 

 [Brahma] himself, the royal glory of eminent poetical dignity ! 



