1835.1 Notes on the preceding Inscription. 397 



respect, except that instead of the Amphibrachys or Proceleusmaticus 

 above-mentioned in the sixth place, a single short syllable is there inserted : 

 and both hemistichs are divided into pddas or quarters at the end of the 

 third foot, (the last syllable of which is not accounted common as in the 

 other measures.) 



VK s n5r*r The reading on the stone most resembles T^^T"^«r, to 

 which no good meaning can be assigned — unless by a violent ellipsis we 

 understand it to denote " one whose superior merit annihilates all rival 

 learned men." The letters ^ and 31 being nearly alike in this ancient 

 character, I have little hesitation in reading it as I have done, " the 

 chief of learned men." The use of ?UJT ** serpent," as of ¥11 ^ST " tiger," 

 fa"^ " lion," &c. &c. to denote pre-eminence, is a known idiom in Sanscrit. 



XLVI. The allusions in this elaborate and not inelegant verse, which 

 is in the Srag-dhard measure, may be found explained in any treatise of 

 Hindu Mythology. The sign of which there is to be " no-removal (^J - ^) 

 even when the sun is bereft of its splendor ( \j*f j^f )" should seem to be 

 the lunar emblem of verse XVIII. from which this mountain is called 

 ■^3j'[eR"fsr*3^: in the second of the records of gift that follow ; or it 

 may be the emblem of Durga', whatever that may have been, which obtain- 

 ed for the same hill the like-sounding epithet of ^^"f^ in verse XXXIV. 

 The mark by which the mountain is now distinguished from the distance 

 of nearly 50 miles round is, as Sergeant Dean informs us, of modern 

 structure; but it has probably succeeded to the place of some equally 

 conspicuous sign erected 750 years before by Sinha Ra'ja. 



XLVII. This verse, which is merely introductory to the first prosaic 

 passage in the inscription, describing the date at which the temple was 

 begun, is the last of the 23 Anustubh stanzas. 



In the date that immediately follows, the well known abbreviation 5^f^ 

 su-di (for "S^W^TcTf^ ) "the day of the former half," i. e. from the change 

 to full moon, indicates that we are to follow here the astronomical year 

 of the Hindus, in which the moons are adjusted to the solar year (like the 

 ancient Attic system, but in a manner much more complex and artificial), 

 not the ordinary civil or solar year with its calendar months. According 

 to the latter, since the Samvat or Vicramaditya year 1018 (coinciding 

 with 4062 of the Kali-Yuga or 883 of Salivahana), began on Saturday, 

 the 23rd of March, O. S. A. D. 9 61, the 13th of its third calendar month 

 Ashadha would fall on Wednesday the 5th of June, O. S. in that year. 

 But the commencement of the first moon, which we are now to regard, 

 when computed according to the rules laid down by Colonel Wakren in his 

 elaborate work, and followed by Mr. James Priivsep in his useful com- 

 pendium, is found to precede by three days on that year the commencement 

 of the civil month called by the same name Vaisakha ; it fell on Wednesday 

 the 20th of March before 7h. p. m. ; and as no intercalation of moons takes 

 place until the beginning of two fall on the same calendar month, the 13th 

 Tithi or lunar day of the third moon Ashadha would thus fall within the 

 7th of the civil month so called, i. e. Thursday the 30th of May, O. S. 



