1836.] Facsimiles of various Ancient Inscriptions. 349 



ed under the writing are in keeping with those that cover the whole of 

 the little chamber, at distances of two or three inches from one another 

 — these appear to be portraits of disciples seated, — all half lengths." 



Captain Gresley has favored me with a ground plan of the cave 

 from memory, but as accurate measurements were taken by Dr. Bird 

 in 1828, for Sir John Malcolm, for the Royal Asiatic Society, it is 

 unnecessary to insert it. 



" The large cave, 40 feet square within the eight columns, has more 

 brilliant figures in fresco painting than any I have visited. It is the 

 one which contains what some have miscalled the zodiac, a portion of 

 a large circle on the wall outside the first cell on the left hand on 

 entering the cave-temple, where many small figures may still be 

 traced." Some damage has been done since 1828, and it is the 

 opinion of these travellers that time and rain will soon render the 

 caves altogether inaccessible. 



The first letter of the inscription is sufficient to shew to what 

 alphabet the Ajunta writing belongs : it is precisely the y of the 

 Allahabad and Gujerat inscriptions ; the second letter is dh of the same 

 alphabet, and the third is the m of the coins of the same period, 

 differing slightly from that of both the inscriptions above named. 



The collocation of these three letters, agreeing exactly with the 

 commencement of the sacred text so constantly found on all the 

 ancient Buddhist images lately brought to notice from Ava, Benares, 

 or Tirhut, Ye dharma, &c, led me to look for the remainder of the 

 stanza ; but it was evident that the text would not bear such a con- 

 struction. Perhaps the Rev. Mr. Stevenson, whose attention has been 

 successfully engaged on the Carli inscriptions, than which however the 

 present seems considerably more modern, may be able to fill up the 

 chasms and rectify the mutilations of this short legend, if indeed it be 

 worth while to do more than recognise and record the style of Ndgari 

 to which it belongs. 



No. 5 of Plate IX. is merely a word in an inscription from the 

 Behtari column, Ghazipur district, concerning which, as it occurred 

 on the Allahabad column, a difference of opinion existed : Captain 

 Troyer reading it Yagna Kacha, and Dr. Mill, Ghatot Kacha : the 

 latter is evidently the most probable, if it be not quite certain ; but I 

 hope to be able to insert the whole inscription (taken down with 

 great care by Lieut. A. Cunningham, Engineers) in my next number, 

 with a full interpretation by the Rev. Principal of Bishop's College. 

 I had lithographed it as Plate VII. to precede the present two, but 

 the translation was not ready for insertion. J. P. 



