1870.] Notes on Sanskrit Inscriptions from Mathura. 125 



correspond with no known or probable era. The value of the first 

 figure is unquestionable ; the second is somewhat like a 7, and the 

 counterparts of the third and fourth are so exactly reproduced in the 

 Nasik records, that they cannot be gainsaid. Reading from right 

 to left, I am unwilling to read the third letter as a 7, for it is not 

 at all likely that eleven would be indicated by 7 -\- 4 when a figure 

 for 10 was in use. The only material objection to this reading 

 would be, the figure for day, which looks very much like the last 

 figure of the year read from the left. But the difficulty is not in- 

 superable. Something very similar to it occurs in the Nasik caves 

 for a 6, but the two are not exactly alike. I am disposed, however, 

 to take it to be the same figure which occurs in the year, i. e., 40. 

 Such a figure for the day of the month would, no doubt, be in- 

 admissible, but as no month is named in the record, the 40 th day 

 of the year 59, would not be an unreasonable way of expressing 

 the date. 



Inscription, No. n, read from the right in the way indicated above, 

 would give the date the 80th day of the year 59. In No. vi 

 there are only two figures, one of which is the same which I have 

 taken for 40 in Nos. 1 and 2, but the other is very doubtful and 

 I cannot positively say whether it is that figure or 100. It looks very 

 like a 7, but a 7 before a 40 would be inconsistent, and it is probably 

 therefore a mutilated remnant of the figure for a 100. If so, the date 

 would be 140. No. xiv has a single figure which occurs repeatedly 

 in the Nasik caves No. 23, for 10, and its date therefore may be 

 without any hesitation taken for the year 10. No. xv has two figures, 

 one of which is 40 and the other 4 = 44. The word for the era 

 in it is given in full, samvatsare, and then follows the word varshe " in 

 the year," very much in the same way, as if a man were to say " in 

 the year 44 Anno Domini." This repetition, however, is common in 

 India, and such a mode of expression as ^r«r ^^i ^T^T is frequently 

 met with. The last letter in the third line is ma, after which, three 

 letters are missing, which contained the name of the month, on the 

 1st of which (prathama divas' e) the record was inscribed. The sub- 

 sequent lines are so full of lacuna?, that it is impossible to make out 

 the purport of the document. The last three lines (8th, 9th, lOth^) 

 are completely obliterated. 



