JOURNAL 



OF 



THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



JVo. 34.— October, 1834. 



I. — Notice of some Ancient Inscriptions in the Characters of the Alla- 

 habad Column. By B. H. Hodgson, Esq. Resident in Nepal. 

 [In a Letter to the Secretary, read at the Meeting of the 28th May, 1834.] 



With reference to the remarks in No. 27 of the Journal on the 

 Allahabad Column, and, more particularly, to the note at the foot of 

 page 116, I hasten to inform you, that some 8 or 10 years ago, I sent 

 to the Asiatic Society drawings and descriptions of a column, and in- 

 scription, which I found in the Tarai of zillah Sarun, half way between 

 the town of Bettiah and the river Gandac, west and a little north of 

 Bettiah, and very near to the Nepal frontier. There is a similar pillar, 

 and similarly inscribed, close to the high road from Segonly to Patna ; 

 and though this be, I suspect, in zillah Tirhut, not Saran, and though 

 Stirling call his Lath, the Sdran pillar, yet I believe him to allude to 

 the latter monument, and not to mine : because the latter is situated 

 in a frequented country, and commonly traversed route to and from 

 sundry familiar places ; and if not in Saran, it is, at least, close to its 

 boundary ; whereas the former stands in a desert out of the way of all 

 ordinary routes. At all events, whether Stirling alluded to one or 

 the other monument, it is certain, that there are two in north Behar ; 

 that both bear inscriptions of an identical character with your No. 1 ; 

 and that both columns resemble in size and shape the Allahabad one, 

 and that of Firoz Shah. I possess likewise an inscription, procured 

 from the Sagar territories, written in the very same character. When 

 therefore we consider the wide diffusion over all parts of India of 

 these alphabetical signs, we can scarcely doubt their derivation from 

 Deva Nagari, and the inference is equally worthy of attention that the 

 2 Q 



