318 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society , [April, 



Library. 



The following books were presented. 



Two copies of the Address by Earl Stanhope to the Medico-Botanical 

 Society, January 1836, received from that Society through the Govern, 

 ment. 



Voyage autour du Monde : the Experimental Voyage of the French cor- 

 vette Favorite in ] 830-32, by Capt. Laplace —presented by M. Fortune' 

 Eydoux, Med. Officer and Naturalist of the Frigate La Bonite. 



The Quarterly Journal of the Calcutta Medical and Pbysical Society, 

 Nos. I and II.— presented by the Editors, Professors Goodeve and O'Shuugh. 

 nessy. 



From the Booksellers; Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopedia, Literary Men, 1. 



Meteorological Journal for March, — by the Surveyor General. 



Antiquities. 



Read the following letter from Lieut M.arkham Kittoe, 6th N. I. 

 dated 2nd April, announcing that in compliance with the Society's desire 

 he had visited Khandgiri, in order to re-examine the inscription published 

 by the late Mr, Stirling. 



" Agreeably to the request contained in your letter of the 20th ultimo, of which I 

 have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, I proceeded on Monday last to Bovanes- 

 war and Khandgiri, and examined the inscription given by Stirling in vol. XV. page 

 313 of the Asiatic Researches. I found that only part of the inscription is given, 

 and that, too, appears faulty. I was unable to attempt a facsimile, not beingprovid- 

 ed with scaffolding or ladders, which are indispensably necessary for tbat purpose. 

 I shall therefore again visit Khandgiri in the course of a few days, when I hope to be 

 enabled to furnish a detailed account of the place and of the remarkably curious 

 caves and sculpture existing there. 



" The inscription is immediately over a tolerably large cave on the southern face of 

 the hill ; unfortunately a great part otitis obliterated : I am, however, in hopes of 

 making out a number of the apparently lost letters by a method I adopt of casting 

 different degrees of shade on the surface, and which I have found to assist greatly 

 in deciphering those of which there is the least shadow remaining. 



** I did not rest with observing this cave, as I saw no reason why others more ex- 

 tensive should not possess like inscriptions ; in this conjecture I was not altogdher 

 mistaken : for I found almost all, large or small, to have more or less writing, some 

 only having one word of six or eight letters (probably the names of the originators 

 of these hermitages), others, sentences. I discovered no less than 14, of 13 of which I 

 enclose copies : of these, four are apparently Sanskrit, one (a name) in a new cha- 

 racter, and the rest in the column character. 



" I have further great pleasure in announcing the discovei - y of the most voluminous 

 inscription in the column character I have ever heard of: it was shown to me by the 

 same ascetic who had assisted me before. 



" It is on a low rocky hill under a high and isolated one, a mile to the west of the 

 Pooree road, and near Piplee at the N. W. corner of the famous tank named Konsla- 

 gung: it is called ' Asivastuma.' There is neither road nor path to this extraordinary 

 piece of antiquity. After climbing the rock through thorns and thicket, I came of a 

 sudden on a small terrace open on three sides with a perpendicular scavp on the 4th 

 or west, from the face of which projects the front half of an elephant of elegant work- 

 manship, four feet high : the whole is cut out of the solid rock. On the northern face 

 beneath the terrace, the rock is chiselled smooth for a space of near 14 feet by 10 feet, 

 and an inscription neatly cut covers the whole space. It is divided apparently into 

 four paragraphs, two of about 36 lines each, a third of about 20, and a fourth of 9^ 

 lines, encircled by a deep cut frame or line, evidently to distinguish it from the other 

 inscription. I took a facsimile of it, as well as of 19 lines of the centre paragraph : 

 this took me a whole day to perform. I shall copy the remainder on my return 

 thither before going to Khandgiri, as I consider it of far more importance than the 

 one there, a very small part of it being obliterated. A number of new letters occur, 

 and variations of" those already known. I am preparing a list of all, which I shall lay 

 before the Society together with all the facsimiles when finished." 



