482 Notice of some Ancient Inscriptions [Oct. 



language is Sanscrit. I use the words Deva Nagari and Sanscrit in 

 the largest sense, and mean thereby, the language and literal sym- 

 bols of the learned Hindus ; for, you know, it is a questiou whether 

 the existing Deva Nagari and Sanscrit be the primitive types, or, onlv 

 the last results of refinement of older forms. The learned among the 

 Hindus, so far as I know, adhere to the former opinion, and insist 

 that all the Bhashas and their written characters, are derivatives from 

 the primitive and perfect types, viz. Sanscrit and Deva Nagari. And, 

 with reference to the variety of alphabetical signs, which are daily 

 being discovered by us, the common assertion of the Pandits of both 

 the Brahmanical and Bauddha faiths is particularly worthy of obser- 

 vation. They say that there are, or were, no less than 64 Bhashas, 

 each with its appropriate alphabet, derived from Sanscrit. Now, though 

 the round number, 64, should probably be received with a grain of 

 reserve, yet the many new varieties (so to speak) of Deva Nagari, 

 which we have discovered in the last 10 years, obviously drawn from 

 that type, tend to confirm the general truth of what the Pandits assert; 

 and, at the same time, warrant the expectation that we shall find many 

 more yet, as well as countenance such presumptions as that your Nos. 

 1 and 2 are essentially the same, and that both are essentially Indian, 

 or (in the language of the Pandits, varieties of the Deva Nagari type. 



When I forwarded the drawing of the Mathiah pillar, (for so it is 

 called by the neighbouring peasants,) with copy of the inscription upon 

 it, to Dr. Wilson, I noticed the resemblance of the letters to those of 

 Tibet, as well as that of the couchant lion* on the top of the monu- 

 ment to the effigies of the same animal, forming the most common 

 sculptural ornament of a certain class of temples in Nepal. And I 

 observed to Dr. Wilson, that those circumstances had led me to hope 

 that some Nepalese Pandit of the Bauddha faith would have been 

 found capable of expounding the inscription : — an expectation in which, 

 I added, I had been disappointed. If you examine the records of your 

 museum, you will, I hope, find the Mathiah pillar and inscription ; 

 but, if not, and I still retain (of which I am doubtful) copies of them, 

 I will forward them to you ; and also, if you desire it, the Sagar 

 inscription. 



Kathmandu, 24th April, 1834. 



I have just ascertained from Lokraman Upadhya, the Nipalese 

 Vakil, that there are three Laths in North Beliar, inscribed with the 



* Lieut. Burt's Bull, which crowned the Pray£g L&th, is or rather was, I 

 suspect from analogy, a Lion. 



