1861.] Literary Intelligence. 427 



«py = thousands 4 — while the tens and units have separate figures. 

 Now to apply this to our inscriptions from Mathura, Manikyala and 

 Kabul. The Mathura dates give >^ ^ and X % • Let us con- 

 sider f\ as equivalent to the Arian letter — h for hat sss sat == 

 100, then the first character x may be = >i = 4 and the date 

 would be 4 hundreds plus 31 in the first case or 431, and 401 in the 

 second case, by adopting Thomas's for 30 — which I doubt. 

 The figure 4 is represented indifferently by ch, or by chli — as V or 

 _=. }£. In the Manikyala inscription the elate is ^"^ which 



might be read as " hundreds 4, plus 4, or 404. It is no matter which 

 way the date is read — as by reading from the left it would be 4 plus 

 4 hundreds. The Wardak date 3 3 would be hundreds 3 plus 3 = 

 303 which if of the Seleucidan era would be = 9 B.C. The day of 

 the month, however, seems to include the same cipher r \. If this 

 is the same character my new reading falls to the ground at once— 

 but it is possible to read ^ f\ Jfc C^» = vrihiya 4. 



The whole subject is full of difficulty. In the Mathura dates it 

 would be better perhaps to take the sloping character *") which agrees 

 with the Kabul and Manikyala forms as the index for hundreds, but 

 then the date would be Hf\ in hundreds. 



One thing is certain = in the Western Cave inscriptions, the units 

 and tens are represented by independent cyphers = the hundreds 

 and thousands by the unit cyphers with indices. Now as the Kabul 

 and Mathura inscriptions are of about the same period, we ought to 

 expect to find the same system of notation employed in them. 



I have a suspicion that the two Mathura dates of ',X O *£• 

 and 5^ ^ are the same, the two middle characters of the first being 

 new exponents — ^L. must be an unit as it is used to number the 

 day of the month. It is the figure 1 of the Satrap inscriptions of 

 the Western Caves. If we might read X.^ / *T^ as 4 A « 1, that 

 is 4 hat alca anka 1, = 4 hundreds -f- units 1 = 401 anka being 

 taken for unit. The figure 7 is represented by j in the Cave inscrip- 

 tions. Thomas's ^ for 30 is a mistake, which he has adopted from 

 Stevenson. His Q for 30 may be correct — and if so, the Mathura 



