1863. | Remarks on the Taxila Inseription. 429 
the transliteration. I am quite prepared to read the third character 
as ry instead of s’r, for as I formerly stated the 7 certainly comes first, 
and the s’ is not distinguishable from y. The difficulty is in the se- 
cond character, which is badly formed and somewhat dubious, but I 
cannot bring myself to recognize in it the letter ch. The General 
says he tinds the same word, “ acharyanam,” in the unpublished Sra- 
vasti Inscription or I should hesitate in admitting the word to have 
been so used among the Baddhists. 
While on the subject of Inscriptions I take the opportunity of sug- 
gesting an emendation of Professor Hall’s translation of two import- 
ant passages in the grants of King Hastin, which will be found in the 
lines I have above quoted. My observations apply to the words bhuk- 
tau and bhukte. The simple idea conveyed by these words is that of 
eating or enjoyment, but out of these the Professor has elaborated the 
sense of “waste” or “destruction” in order to bring them into con- 
formity with the word “ s/dute” which is elsewhere similarly used and 
which he has translated “being extinct.”* He has certainly got an 
approximation to the sense, though, to adopt his own words upon Pro- 
fessor Wilson’s rendering of another passage, he has not, verbally consi- 
dered, unriddled them aright. The first passage is ‘‘ Gupta-nripa-rdjya- 
bhuktau,” which he renders ‘‘ (In the year 156) of the extinction of the 
sovereignty of the Gupta Kings.”” Wilson’s version was “ of the oceupa- 
tion of the kingdom by the Gupta Kings” (Prinsep I. 251-2). This was 
certainly objectionable, but simply change the word dy into of and all 
becomes clear. The word bhuktaw may be taken in its well ascertain- 
ed sense, and no development or stretching of the signification is re- 
quired. The true reading of the sentence, as I take it, is “In the 
-year 156 of (my dynasty’s) possession of the realm of the Guptas.” 
The second Inscription reads “ Trishatyuttare *bdas'ate Gupta-nripa- 
rijya-bhukte,” the noun bhukti being changed for the participle bhukte, 
which is made to agree with the date. Professor Hall renders it “163 
years after the domination of the Guptas had been laid to rest.” Ac- 
cording to my view, it should read “ In the 163rd year that the realm 
of the Guptas has been possessed (by my dynasty). It may be con- 
sidered perhaps that the words s’dnte and bhukte, having been similer- 
ly used, must therefore have a similar signification. To meet this view 
* See Kahaun Inscription, Journal for 1861, page 3. 
