686 Notice of the Vallabhi dynasty, [Nov. 



the author writes us, by a perusal of Mr. Wathbn's translation of the 

 Gujerdt inscriptions in our last volume,— a translation which M. Jac- 

 quet does not hesitate to pronounce " ce que 1' on a encore publie de 

 mieux en ce genre dans 1' Inde a Y exception peut-etre de quelques 

 monuments traduits par votre admirable Colebrooke." 



'We cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of adding his further testimony 

 to the great utility of this important document. " J 'ai etc - d'autant 

 plus satisfait de voir ce Shdsana si heureusement interprets, que je 

 possede, dans le petit nombre des copies d' inscriptions rassemblees 

 par Tod, un Shasana non date, ecrit dans le meme caractere ; et que 

 j'avais dechiffre de maniere a obtenir un alphabet absolument con- 

 forme a celui de Mr. Wathen. C'est encore cet alphabet qui m' a donne 

 le moyen de dechiffrer les legendes des anciennes medailles indiennes, 

 et de reconnaitre le nom altere de Chandragupta dans l'inscription 

 de Bhilsa, publiee dans votre journal d'apres le facsimile de Mr. 

 Hodgson." — In fact, M. Jacquet at Paris has been pursuing step by 

 step the path we have been following in India ; and while this fortunate 

 key has opened to him an insight into the Bhilsa inscription, the 

 self-same has led Capt. Cunningham to discover the titles Maharaja 

 adhi raja, &c. in the inscription from the Khandgiri rock, published in 

 Stirling's account of Cuttack. The copies are both too imperfect 

 to hope for further success until the originals can be re-examined, 

 and this has been undertaken by two friends upon whose zeal we may 

 entirely confide, — Mr. L. Wilkinson of Bhopal, and Lieut. Kittoe, 

 whose regiment has just marched to Cuttack. 



But to return. In addition to inscriptions and coins, we may now 

 look to the geographers and historians of China, for an insight into 

 the middle ages of Indian history ; and the latter have this great 

 advantage over the former, — that they have scrupulously preserved 

 dates in their records, and that they, as M. Jacquet justly says, 

 " font le journal de l'Asie depuis le second siecle avant notre ere." 

 In his very interesting article inserted in the Journal Asiatigue on the 

 recent Bactrian and Indo-Scythic discoveries, we are promised further 

 and more copious extracts from the Chinese relatively to Cabul and 

 the adjacent countries. — " Les temoignages des auteurs orientaux, 

 et en particulier des historiens chinois, sur les monnaies des differents 

 peuples qui ont successivement occupe les contrC'es de l'Asie centrale ; 

 les temoignages des memes auteurs, sur les langues et les Ventures 

 de ces peuples ;" — these are included among the objects embraced by 

 the learned author in his intended publication, ' Corpus Inscription- 

 um Indicarum,' the appearance of which, our readers will regret to 

 hear, is unavoidably delayed beyond the period at first indicated. It 



