478 Account of two ancient [Sept. 



mencement ; but it was long before I could understand the vowel 

 mark i, ( a ) which I took for anuswara ; after these, and a few other 

 letters had been ascertained, the first of the inscriptions was easily 

 decyphered, with the aid of a learned pandit. 



The second was more defaced, and after the greatest trouble, 

 a part of it still remained unintelligible, the letters having become 

 obliterated by the effects of time and damp. 



They are both grants of lands to priests ; the first is about fifteen 

 hundred years old; and the date of the second, some hundred years 

 subsequent. 



Thinking that an account of these inscriptions, and of the charac- 

 ter in which they are written, may be interesting to some of your 

 readers, and throw some additional light on the ancient history of 

 the west of India, I have ventured to trouble you with the accom- 

 panying paper, for insertion in your Journal. 



A translation of the inscription A is transmitted, and the substance of 

 the other will be given in the accompanying observations. W. H. W. 



The character in which these grants are written, is evidently 

 derived from the more ancient one which is found in the caves of 

 Kaneri, of Carli, and Verula (Ellora), on this side of India; it also 

 resembles that of the cave inscription decyphered by Mr. Wilkins 

 in the first volume of the Asiatic Researches. 



"With the view of facilitating the future researches of antiquarians, 

 who may meet with the same description of writing, a comparative 

 alphabet of this character and devandgari, (No. 1.) and a fac-simile of 

 one of the inscriptions, interlined with the modern devandgari, (No 

 2.) are annexed*. 



One original character, being that found in the caves, appears to have 

 first existed throughout the western parts of India, that is in the Dakhan, 

 Konkan, Gujerdt, and perhaps more generally. It seems to have un- 

 dergone gradual changes, until about two centuries subsequent to the 

 seras of Vicra'maditya and Saliva 'hana, an alphabet nearly similar, 

 or identical with that at present noticed, would appear to have been 

 introduced. In order to shew that there is considerable ground for 



* See Plates XL. and XLI. We have separated the modern Sanscrit inter- 

 lineation, which permitted of being set up in type, giving figured references to 

 the lines of the more ancient Nagari lithographed in Plate XL. We have also 

 ventured to omit the 3rd and 4th pages of the lithographed Alphabet, containing 

 the compound consonants with their several vowel marks, as these combinations 

 will be obvious to those who know the letters, and have the necessary examples 

 before them in the inscription itself. — Ed. 



