460 Ancient Sculpture and Inscriptions [June, 



The date at the foot of this inscription is even more unintelligible 

 than that of No. 1 — not from obliteration, for the lines cut on the 

 stone are here quite distinct, but from our ignorance of the numerals 

 then employed : — the two or three figures following the word Samvat 

 hear no resemblance whatever either to the modern Hindi or to 

 the Cashmerian numerals. The month also is very dubious, and 

 the letters that follow it may also be numerals — it is barely possible to 

 read them as aditya (the sun) which on the system explained in Vol. 

 IV. page 1, may stand for 12 — or it may denote the day, Sunday. 

 We are thus once more foiled in detecting the precise date of a record 

 which it would have been of the greatest service to fix : and we must 

 remain satisfied with the assurance that it was posterior to the erection 

 of the gate in the reign of Chandragupta. 



And now for inscriptions 3 to 25 of Captain Smith's catalogue ; — 

 the detached fragments cut irregularly on the pillars or rail sur- 

 rounding the edifice, in the hitherto undeciphered character. I 

 have introduced the whole of them into Plate XXVII. exactly as I 

 find them in the facsimiles, except as to size, which in the original 

 varies from one inch to two or three in the height of the letters. 

 There is also great variety in the style of the engraving, and a regular 

 progression in the form of the letters from the simple outline to the 

 more embellished type of the second alphabet of Allahabad ; (see No. 

 16). A more rigid search would doubtless have multiplied Captain 

 Smith's specimens, but this would have been labour thrown away ; 

 for however valuable these scraps may have been in unlocking the 

 stores of knowledge contained in more important documents, they are 

 individually of very trifling importance. 



In laying open a discovery of this nature, some little explanation is 

 generally expected of the means by which it has been attained. Like 

 most other inventions, when once found it appears extremely simple ; 

 and, as inmost others, accident, rather than study, has had the merit of 

 solving the enigma which has so long baffled the learned. 



While arranging and lithographing the numerous scraps of facsi- 

 miles, for Plate XXVII. I was struck at their all terminating with the 

 same two letters, |J_|_*. Coupling this circumstance with their 

 extreme brevity and insulated position, which proved that they could 

 not be fragments of a continuous text, it immediately occurred that 

 they must record either obituary notices, or more probably the offer- 

 ings and presents of votaries, as is known to be the present custom in 



