394 Vestiges of the Kings of Owalior. [No. 4, 



far the opinion there hazarded is hased on facts, it is not for me now 

 to enquire ; I am glad, however, to perceive that Dr. Bhau Daji of 



after the lapse of so many years. He is even condescending enough to say 

 " Consulting the Babu's welfare I would, however, exhort him to the study of 

 accuracy, and to an advised consideration in the choice of his premises." As a 

 general maxim it will, I hope, prove widely useful. I receive his advice with a 

 deep sense of gratitude, and promise always to bear it in mind. To shew that 

 I have already benefited by it, I must, even at the risk of being tedious, adduce 

 my premises for the errors in his reading of the Iran inscriptions to which I 

 take exception. Dr. Hall has attributed most of them to the printers (Ante 

 XXX. p. 149), but it is difficult to conceive how those scape-goats are to be 

 responsible for the word sansurata which Dr. H. altered into sansurabhu without 

 any authority. Again he commented upon the word fcfrT^fl cfSjTfT^ a3 " a 



hoary solecism in Sanscrit books" and translated it, " who was the counterpart 

 of his sire." Prinsep has " father' s-talent-possessing," and Goldstiicker explains 

 the word ^Jfr^TfT * n ^' 1S Dictionary by " born like or with similar qualities as 



(another)." Next he translates ^J'asT'gflt^fjT: into the unmeaning " derived 



prosperity to his race," when he should have followed Prinsep and given " for 

 the prosperity of his race." Regarding the elegant simile of a king electing his 

 wife like a maiden her husband, the Doctor says, that as soon as he saw his 

 paper in print, he amended it for his " private eye." Unfortunately, however, when 

 some months after he prepared for the public eye his bulky errata it entirely escaped 

 him, and as I happened not to have the faculty of ubiquitousness I could not benefit 

 by the emendation. The dissyllable ;rt*t which Dr. Hall had overlooked in 

 TTl , 5f^«T and I pointed out in a note to my paper on Toramana, is not a word 

 of any moment, and would have called for no animadversion in connexion with 

 ancient inscriptions where the decypherer has in most cases to grope completely 

 in the dark, but when a critic, professedly the most microscopically exact, 

 comes forward with the avowed object of correcting the errors of such a 

 scholar as Prinsep, it is naturally expected that he should take some precaution 

 to ensure accuracy, and not blunder even in those places where the unfortunate 

 subject of his criticism happens to be correct. His dissertation on the uses 

 of iSanskiita prefixes I shall notice on some future occasion. The subject is of 

 importance and claims more consideration than can be devoted to it in the space 

 of a foot note. 



Since writing the above, I find the Doctor has once again come to the 

 rescue of his sansurabhu. When lie first suggested it as an improvement 

 upon Prinsep's sansurata he stated (Ante Vol. XXX. p. 16) " standing 



BEFORE THE ORIGINALS, I COMPARED MY FACSIMILES LETTER BY LETTER 

 WITH THOSE THAT HATE BEEN LITHOGRAPHED ; AND EVEN THE SLIGHTEST 

 DISSIMILARITY OE THE COPIES WAS PATIENTLY TESTED BY THE PERISHING 



ALCHITYPES." In his first corrigenda, which he published some months after, 

 lie added, " It ought to have been remarked that what I read as sansura- 

 bhu is doubtful in its penultimate syllable and very doubtful in its final. If 

 right render ' in which is the good land of (he gods.' " (Ante Vol. XXX. p. 150.) 

 When I expressed a doubt regarding its accuracy, the Doctor administered a 

 severe rebuke to me for my presumption, stating " It goes with the Babi for but 

 little, I find, as contributing to induce credit in the trustworthiness of my version 

 of the Eran inscriptions, that standing before the originals, I compared my 

 facsimiles, letter by letter, with those that have been lithographed and even 

 the slightest dissimilarity of the copies was patiently tested by the perishing 

 archit\pes. The lithograjDhed copies were those of Prinsep." And yet at the 

 same time he fell another step back and was quite undecided as to giving up his 

 reading or abiding by it, for he said (Ante "Vol. XXX. p. 387.) " I have far 



FROM INTIMATED ANY CONFIDENCE IN THE CORRECTNESS OF MY READING ; and I 



