1834.] at the Caves of Carli, near Poona. 497 



4th. That the Shakas did not come in numbers sufficient to sup- 

 plant the language or literature of the Brahmans, whose learned lan- 

 guage, the Sanskrita, they adopted to carry the memory of their 

 deeds down to posterity. 



5th. That since a character much simpler, and less artificial than 

 the Deva Nagari, was in use for writing the Sanskrita language over 

 all the western parts of India, it, and not the Deva Nagari, was, most 

 probably, the character in which the Vedas, and most ancient composi- 

 tions of the Hindus, were first committed to writing; and should those 

 writings ever be carefully studied, and need conjectural criticism, this 

 ancient character will also require to be studied. 



6th. That the Arabic numeral cyphers had been introduced into 

 India at the period above mentioned. The figure for one, and the two 

 zeros in inscription E, are formed very neai-ly as they are formed in 

 the Dakhan at the present day, and are united by a kind of hyphen as 

 is still customary. 



7th. That great caution must be exercised in admitting local tradi- 

 tions, in regard to such distant times. The universal tradition among 

 the inhabitants of the Dakhan is, that all these caves were formed by 

 the sons of Pa'ndu, when in banishment, wandering about the country; 

 and I was at first inclined to believe, that when the Pandavas came 

 to power, they might so perpetuate the memory of the places of their 

 former retreat ; but the temple at Karli belongs to a much later era, as 

 we have seen, and probably the same is the case with those also at 

 Verul, (Ellora,) some of which greatly resemble it. The truth is, that 

 it would be too much for modern Brahmans to allow, that those who 

 rejected the divine authority of the Vedas, could perform works, which 

 the orthodox Hindus of modern times cannot equal, even though it should 

 be at the expence of making the Pandavas encouragers of atheism. 



I make no remarks on the proper names of kings, in the inscriptions, 

 as I do not know that we have any lists of the descendants of Sha'li- 

 va'hana, that can be depended on. In proper names where the letters 

 are not perfectly distinct, doubt must remain, from the absence of all 

 aid from the construction and context. 



That your efforts for the promotion of science may be still more and 

 more instrumental in clearing away the mists with which the Hindus 

 have enveloped the history of their nation, and become the means of 

 arousing many of them also to the zealous pursuit of true knowledge, 

 is the ardent wish of Your obedient servant, 



Poona, 17 th Sept. 1834. J. Stevenson. 



[The inscriptions will be found in the following page.] 

 2 s 



