388 Notes on the preceding Inscription. [July, 



The first quarter of this verse is obliterated on the edge of the stone, 

 and it would be idle to attempt its restitution. 



III. — This verse is like the first, a lyric measure, but of a different kind, 

 called Srag-dhard, each of the four lines being of the enormous length of 

 19 syllables, disposed exactly as in the following (transposed from the 

 end of the Orestes) — with the caesura on the 14th syllable, 



. w w w w w w w w — — w — — 



Zrjvbs Xa/xTrpois /ieAd0pois Se ve\d<ru 'E\4y7]i/, svda. (refxvais irdpeSpos 

 The subject of this verse is the infuriate dance of Siva, as Bhairava, 

 after the sanguinary vengeance he exacted for the death of his self-devoted 

 wife Sati, (the first form of the great XJurga' — as the mountain nymph 

 Uma' Pa'rvatI was the second,) as related in the Siva-Purana, &c. &c. 

 IV. — The measure of this verse is a kind of reduction of the former to 

 15 syllables, and is called Manda-dkrantd. 



— — w w w w w — — w — — w 



7,v\vbs S'oT/fois ire\dcrw 'EAeVrji/, ev6a cre/xfais irdpedpos 



For these descriptions of the god, see Moor's Hindu Pantheon, unde? 

 the head Siva. 



V. — This and all the following verses as far as ver. XVI, (with the 

 exception of the IX., XL, and XV., which resemble the II.) are in the 

 same measure with the III. verse, the Srag-dhara. 



On the Ganges flowing from Siva's head, vide Moor ut sup. — The 

 threefold Ganges — the river of heaven and hell, as well as of earth — is a 

 frequent subject with the poets of India. 



Of the last word ■^tfT^T^T- which is very clearly marked on the stone, 

 I can make no better sense than that which I have expressed, viz. con- 

 necting it with ^fft^ff " the sport of a cricket." Perhaps the word may 

 have some other meaning, which the standard vocabularies do not contain. 



VI. — «T3I3T«ft. The inscription apparently has cfJT^nft, which is without 

 meaning : but as the «T in this ancient Devanagari might easily, by the 

 erosion of a slight loop, pass into a ■&, and as " the daughter of the moun- 

 tain" is a Hindu poetical expression for a river, I have read it accord- 

 ingly. 



In this verse, of which both the sentiment and expression are of a 

 higher order than in most others of the inscription, we have the doctrine, 



drisyllabic feet. The former of these is subject to no other restriction than that it 

 must not have both the middle syllables short ; and in the even quarters, i. e. the 

 2nd and 4th, it must not close with an Iambirs. The latter is more restricted : ia 



the even quarters, it is always without exception a Dijambus, w — w , and 



in the two others, the 1st and 3rd, it should be an Epitritus quartus w — : 



except that after a long syllable, the following four forms are sometimes admitted, 

 the first most frequently, the rest more rarely in the order of their position. 



