1834.] Inscriptions at the Caves of Carli. 495. 



V. — Restoration and Translation of some Inscriptions at the Caves 

 of Carli, by the Rev. J. Stevenson. 



[In a letter to the Secretary, read at the Meeting of the 5th Nov.] 



I have the pleasure to send you a copy of some of the inscriptions 

 engraved on the excavated temple at Karli, near Puna (Poonah), along 

 with an alphabet for decyphering them, and a translation. 



It is now about a year since I first began to search, among the learn- 

 ed natives of this place, for a key to these inscriptions ; but I was pro- 

 vokingly sent by the Marathas to the Kanarese, and by them again 

 to the Tamulians, and so on, without any result in an endless succes- 

 sion. I then made a collection of all the alphabets used on this side 

 of India, and made the attempt, through means of them, to decypher 

 the inscriptions; but still with no encouraging success. While en- 

 gaged in these attempts, happily the March No. of your Journal was 

 sent me by a friend, and through the aid it afforded me, in furnishing 

 me with the alphabet of Inscription No. 2, on the Allahabad Pillar, 

 with some little assistance from the sources above mentioned, I have 

 been able to decypher some of our inscriptions ; and hope that if you 

 have not found the key to the character of Inscription No. 1, my alpha- 

 bet may carry you several steps towards its attainment, and so repay 

 the debt I owe for the assistance derived from your Journal. 



Indeed I think the first 13 letters on the Allahabad stone, repeat- 

 ed again in lines 5th and 8th, and several times on the Delhi pillar, 

 may, without much difficulty, be read as containing an address, proba- 

 bly to the Sun, in pure Sanskrita, as follows : %SFK fa^ fqr^ ^TTWoR?^ 

 which perhaps may be translated as follows : — " In the two ways (of 

 wisdom and works ?) with all speed do I approach the resplendent 

 receptacle of the ever-moving luminous radiance." I do not however 

 enter farther upon the decyphering of the inscriptions, found on the 

 banks of the Ganges. Many important duties prevent me from allot- 

 ting much time to studies of this nature, and the time I can spare for 

 such a purpose, will be better spent in endeavouring to illucidate the 

 history of the Dakhan (Deccan), from the numerous inscriptions in 

 this, and the other ancient character, which are to be found up and 

 down the country ; assured, that the learned in Calcutta will soon re- 

 veal to us whatever mysteries the Allahabad and Delhi pillars conceal. 



The inscriptions marked (A) (B) and (E), are in a letter of a differ- 

 ent cast, and of about twice the size, of the others ; and I almost fancy 

 them somewhat more modern than the construction of the cave : but 



