128 Three Sanskrit Inscriptions. [No. 2, 



Those who are interested in the preservation of Indian antiquities 

 will be grieved to hear, that, during the last fourteen months, the 

 writing on 'the column has suffered irreparable injury. The boys of 

 the village have invented a new amusement, in throwing stones at it ; 

 and at least a dozen letters that were complete, when last I was 

 here, are now for ever obliterated. 



Camp Eran, Feb. 26, 1862. 



^f^rT^^^i'rP^'^T'fi: II I II 



1. "Triumphant is he who, with his massed net-work of rays, lighting up 

 space, dispels the darkness, sportive as rain-clouds, and adorns the peaks of the 

 Eastern Mountain with his hues, the points of whose tremulous lustre are dis- 

 tracted with weariness from journeying in alarm. 



2. " May he who, going daily to the Eastern Mountain, removes the distress 

 of ruddy geese longing fur the leturn of day ; the illuminator of earth, as it were 

 a mansion ; destroyer of night ; who, by his rays, in colour like melted gold, in- 

 cessantly supplies new embellishment to the water-lilies, protect you." 



These lines come from a temple dedicated to the sun, to whom they are ad- 

 dressed. Poor in thought, they are also incorrect as to language. rffq'rT 

 is false Sanskrit for fj-jf • and ^TRT^ is censurably used for XTTPJftsjcfT. 

 I do not apprehend, that the poetaster designed any the remotest allusion to 

 the Udayagiri hill near Bhelsa. 



The first letter that appears at the beginning of the inscription is a broken 

 4j; and nothing of ^g^^efji remains except the \g and the shanks of the jj. 

 But those are distinct. 



To ^S^fTOf^, i" the second stanza, I have added, from pure conjecture, 

 ©3T ^T^T-, as a substitute for stars. The third line shows an wpadkmdmya 

 before a -q. In the teeth of all grammar, this, as lately edited, has been turned 

 into a repha ; and, further on, in what I do not print, -jr [fflfq^T^f^iT, 

 most legibly photographed, has given place to ^(TnfcfH^i^jT. Shade of iS'aka- 

 tayana! See last year's Journal, pp. 275, 276. 



