1863. | On Ancient Sanskrit Numerals. 161 
language of the edicts, and those who heard it read out could likewise 
understand it, and that is all that is intended to be said in regard to 
its vernacularity. 
Philologically considered the language of the edicts is intermediate 
between the Sanskrita on the one side and the Prakrita on the other. 
lassen says, “que le Prakrit altére plus le Sanskrit que ne le fait le 
Pali, et qu’il offre en quelque sorte, le second dégré d’alteration, comme 
le Palien est le premier et le plus immédiat.” And inasmuch as 
the Bactro-Pali bears the closest resemblance to it with a leaning to- 
wards the Sanskrita, we cannot but assign to it a Sanskritic affiliation, 
and in decyphering it therefore the safest guide appears to us to be 
the Sanskrita. Hence it is that the more we assimilate it with 
Sanskrita, the more readily does it become intelligible, while all 
attempts to decypher it on the hypothesis of its being a mixed 
language, have hitherto proved completely fruitless. 
—~ 
On Ancient Sanskrit Numerals—By Dr. Buav Dast, of Bombay. 
Some time ago I read before the Bombay Branch of the Royal 
Asiatic Society a paper on ancient Sanskrit numerals, which will, I 
believe, appear in that Society’s Journal in a year or two. As I 
think the discovery of the correct value of the numerical symbols is 
important, perhaps this brief abstract will be deemed worthy of publi- 
cation in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 
In deciphering the inscriptions in the caves of western India, espe- 
cially those at Nassick, I found many numerical symbols the value 
of which was at the same time given in words. And as many of 
them are repeated sometimes in the same series of inscriptions, some- 
times in others, without presenting any difference, there cannot possi- 
bly be a doubt of the correctness of the following results. The sym- 
bol for one hundred is 4 that for two hundred is represented by one 
side spur stroke added to the former > that for three hundred is re- 
presented by two side spur strokes a . The symbol for four hund- 
red has not been found. Strange to say the symbol for 500 is not 
4 placed after the symbol for 100, but the number 5 itself joined, 
