/ 



1834.] on the Allahabad Column. 265 



25. Of him whose mind is in time of affliction and distress, ever singly in- 

 tent on the disposition and arrangement of charitable works ; who is 

 a god in the mansion of the world ; the great grandson of the great 

 king Gupta, grandson of the great king Ghatotkacha, son of the great 

 king, the supreme monarch Chandra Gupta ; — 



26. Of him who is also maternal grandson of Lichhavi, conceived in the 

 great goddess-like Cuma'ra-Devj, the great king, the supreme monarch 

 Samudra Gupta, illustrious for having filled the whole earth with the 

 revenues arising from his universal conquest, [equal] to Indra chief of 

 the gods ; — 



27. Of this child of the Sun, though clothed in hairy flesh, this lofty pillar 

 is the arm, sustaining all his friends with powerful assistance both at 

 home and in foreign travel ; of him, [I say,] whose fame raised by gra- 

 dual accumulation of materials to the most exalted eminence in the 

 strength of the arm of his liberality, and the abundance of his sentences 

 respecting the law of tranquil meditation, is extended in various direc- 

 tions. 



28. And that [fame] purifies the three worlds ; even as the [sacred stream 

 given by Arjuna the hero] of the house of Pandu, [purified the 

 dying] Bhishma, thus encircled within the noble bandage of the clot- 

 ted hair of Siva [whence Ganges first sprung]. Such is the un- 

 equalled eulogy, the composition of him who serves the countenance 

 of the great monarch, w^o by reason of the favour of continually 

 going about in his presence is even infatuated in mind, — 



29. The mature* dwarf — son of the great superintendant of penal justice 

 Srava-bhu'ti, M'ho is both in peace and war, the counsellor of the youn°- 

 king, the great superintendant [of penal justice] Hari Na'na. Salu- 

 tation to [God], the kind friend of all creatures. 



30. But with whom, however devoted to the study of the Rig Veda, the 

 best gift of the Supreme Sovereign, [can we compare] Tilabhatta, the 

 great superintendant of penal justice, surrounded by his army [of 

 inferior ministers of the law] ? 



Remarks on the above Inscription. 

 . The style of laboured ornament affected in the public inscriptions 

 of India is strongly contrasted with the severe simplicity of the same 

 kind of composition in the monuments of other ancient nations: and the 

 deciphering of the Allahabad pillar does not appear destined to re- 

 move in any degree this reproach from the national taste. With the 

 criticism, however, of this inscription, as a literary work, we are little 



* I am by no means satisfied with this rendering of'SIT^Tf^^i' but I can find 

 no better. The translation " culinary dwarf" had occurred to me: thus associat- 

 ing to the character of dwarf (in Sanscrit ^IT^O that attachment to good cheer, 

 which is a standing characteristic of the half buffoon, half counsellor, called Vidu- 

 shana in the Indian drama, and considered as a Brahmanical appendage to royalty. 

 But the words scarcely bear out either interpretation :— nor is this association of 

 the characters of dwarf and of royal attendant confirmed by any Indian example that 

 I am aware of, however common in the fairy tales of Persia and the West. 

 M M 



