170 Report of the Archaeological Survey. [No. 3, 



or " the canopy stone," which would seem to show that the inscribed 

 block had formerly been covered over by some kind of canopy, or 

 perhaps only by an umbrella, as the name imports. There are a 

 number of squai'ed stones lying about close to the rock, as well as se- 

 veral fragments of octagonal pillars and half pillars or pilasters, which 

 are hollowed out or fluted on the shorter faces, after the common 

 fashion of the pillars of Buddhist railings. There is also a large 

 carved stone, 7 feet long, l|r foot broad, and 1 foot in height, which 

 from its upper mouldings I judged to have formed the entrance step 

 to some kind of open porch in front of the inscription stone. 



189. When found by Mr. Forrest early in 1860 the letters of the 

 inscription were hardly visible, the whole surface being encrusted with 

 the dark moss of ages ; but on removing this black film the surface 

 became nearly as white as marble. At first sight the inscription looks 

 as if it was imperfect in many places, but this is owing to the engrav- 

 er having purposely left all the cracked and rougher portions uninscrib- 

 ed. On comparing the different edicts with those of the Kapurdagiri, 

 Junagiri and Dhouli versions, I find the Khalsi text to be in a more 

 perfect state than any one of them, and more especially in that part of 

 the 13th Edict which contains the names of the five Greek Kings r 

 Antiochus, Ptolemy, Antigonus, Magas, and Alexander. The Khalsi 

 text agrees with that of Dhouli in rejecting the use of the letter r, 

 for which I is everywhere substituted. But the greatest variation is in 

 the use of the palatal sibilant s, "sq;, which has not been found in any 

 other inscription of this early date. This letter occurs in the word 

 Pdsanda, which curiously enough is spelt sometimes with one s, and 

 sometimes with the other, even in the same edict. As the proper 

 spelling of this word is Pashanda, it seems almost certain that the 

 people of India Proper did not possess the letter sh in the time of Asoka. 



190. I made a complete impression of the whole of this important 

 inscription. I also copied the whole of the inscription on the left side 

 by eye, as well as most of the more obscure parts in the front inscrip- 

 tion. I have since compared the entire text with those of the other 

 rock tablets, and I am now engaged in making a reduced copy of this 

 valuable record for early publication. I propose, however, first to 

 compare it with the Kapurdagiri version in the Arian characters. 

 "With good copies of all the different texts before them, the scholars 



