1S62.] Remarks on iJie above by E. C. Bat/ley, Esq. 187 



three* letters, viz., the 11th of the first line and the ninth and tenth 

 of the second line, appears to me open to any doubt. I would also 

 add that as I read the original sealing wax impressions, the 12th let- 

 ter of the first line has the vowel mark of " e" which the plate as 

 published does not give. 



Of the three doubtful letters Babu Rajendra Lai would wish to 

 read the first as " jna." There is here even not only no authority for 

 this reading, but a direct authority against it ; "jna" occurs, as Rajen- 

 dra Lai himself has pointed out, on the biliteral coins of Kanunda in 

 a form which by no possibility can have been corrupted or converted 

 into that here used. I am free to admit that there is no distinct 

 example, so far as I am aware, of the character here employed, else- 

 where — but it is in itself nothing more than a couple of " v" s placed 

 the one above the other — the compound of two " v" s is not an un- 

 common one, and though probably such compound letters were not 

 known to the earlier Pali, there is, I think, some ground for believing 

 that they were gradually introduced into it. The compound of " s," 

 "f'and "r," of "t" and "r," of "s" and "p," of "j" and "n" have 

 been fully recognized and established by bi-literal inscriptions. There 

 is, therefore, no antecedent improbability against the reception of the 

 compound, and I believe that most of the characters in those inscrip- 

 tions which are yet undetermined, are probably also compound. 



The second doubtful letter, the twelfth of the second line, I agree 

 with Rajendra Lai in rendering as "lu" or better perhaps "lo," but 

 the shape of the vowel mark makes the reading a little uncertain. 

 The 13th letter is too in all probability a vowel, but I think rather 

 "d," or perhaps " li," than "i," as was rendered in the note above. 



I may also point out that the 14th letter may possibly be either 

 an " r" or a " t ;" it certainly is not a " v" as rendered by Eajendra 

 Lai, and all the other letters in the reading by which I differ from 

 him may be seen at once by the parallel transliterations given below. 



Babu Eajendra Lai's 



" Sirie bhagava bodhavo prajna" 

 " Ratiyamatuf hasisapita hasasilu" 

 " iva sasi atiyoha viharati." 



* Since writing the above I have had an opportunity of examining the ori« 

 ginal gold leaf : the ninth letter may possibly be read as "ye." 



f The plate given oinita the vowel mark which is that of the vowel "e." 



