182 Note on the Inscription on the Pedestal [March, 



A singular coincidence shortly after served very materially to in- 

 crease the interest thus raised regarding this short and otherwise 

 trivial inscription. 



It may not be generally known to the members of the Society, that 

 some of my Benares friends, Captain Thoresby, Secretary of the San- 

 scrit College, Major Grant, and Lieut. Alexander Cunningham, 

 of the Engineers, stimulated by the success of General Ventura's opera- 

 tions in the Panjab, have undertaken at joint expence with myself to 

 open carefully the large Buddhist monument at Sarnath*, so frequently 

 alluded to in the Asiatic Researches, wherein it is conjectured from 

 the evidence of some ancient inscriptions on copper, dug up near the 

 spot, to have been erected by the sons of Bhupala, a Raja of Gaur, in 

 the eleventh centuryf. 



Lieut. Cunningham, who is still zealously occupied in this interest- 

 ing work, at such moments as his official duties will permit, has him- 

 self promised me a full account of his operations, when the whole shall 

 be completed ; but he has permitted me to anticipate him in mention- 

 ing the subject I am now about to introduce, should I be able to fur- 

 nish a full explanation; which the sequel will prove to be the case. 



At the depth then of ten feet and a half from the summit of the 

 stone building, he extracted a slab of stone 28f inches long, 13 inches 

 broad, by 4f thick, bearing an inscription in an ancient form of Devana- 

 gari, of which, after referring in vain to the Pandits of the degenerate 

 Kasi, he sent me an exact facsimile by dak. 



The stone was found lying with its head to the south-west, among 

 the bricks and mud. It is of a pinkish hue, and all the letters are in 

 excellent preservation. 



Lieut. Cunningham remarked the similarity of some of the forms 

 to the Sanscrit of the Manikyala coins, Plate XXI. figs. 10, 11 ; and to 

 some letters of the Allahabad inscription, No. 2. in the second volume. 



The facsimile, (represented on a smaller scale in fig. 2 of Plate 

 IX,) reachedme.asl havebefore stated, while the Tirhut imagewas under 

 examination, and it immediately struck me from one or two prominent 

 letters, as well as from the general appearance of the whole, that the 



* It must not be supposed, that in this enterprize, the feelings of the natives are 

 in any way offended. The Hindus are quite unconcerned about the tope, and 

 the two sects of Jains in Benares, who are now at variance with each other, had 

 joined in requesting me to open the building at their expence, that it might 

 be ascertained to which party (Digambari or Swetambari) the enclosed image might 

 belong. My departure from Benares alone prevented my satisfying their curiosity 

 in 1830. 



f See As. Res. vol. ix. pp. 74, 203 ; x. 130. 



