1864.] Note on the Bactro-Pali Inscription from Taxila. 37 



p. 139, Journ. As. Soc. Bengal, 1863). On all questions of Sanskrit 

 Grammar, I bow to Eajendra Lai's acknowledged learning, and I have 

 therefore only a few words to say regarding his remarks. The word 

 sapatika (or sepatilca in Professor Dowson's copy) I left untranslated— 

 but the next word, aprativddita, I rendered by " matchless teacher" 

 as a simpler and more characteristic expression than the more literal 

 form of " unopposable in argument." I translated the words saputra- 

 ddra, as "together with his son's wife," instead of " together with his 

 son and wife," because I believed that if the latter sense had been 

 intended, the word cha " and" would have followed ddra. 



In page 153 JBabu Eajendra accuses me of " dropping altogether 

 the vre before hi in my reading of the date of the Wardak inscrip- 

 tion ;" but in making this statement he is again mistaken, as he will 

 find by referring to p. 145 of my remarks, where there is a star, thus # 

 before hi, which is the usual way of marking that a letter is not satis- 

 factorily legible. But besides this prominent star, the Babu will find, 

 only just two lines afterwards, the following remark : " One letter only 

 is doubtful, although according to the form given to it in the copy, it 

 should be ste, or perhaps vri" The insertion of the word divasa in 

 my first reading was a simple oversight, as the Babu might have seen 

 by its omission in my last reading. 



In the engraving of my inscription from Ohind, the straight stroks 

 which follows the syllable San, and precedes the figures, is a mistake 

 of the engraver. On this part of the stone there is a slight irregular 

 crack the whole way across it, which has been straightened and 

 shortened by the engraver into a thick upright stroke, which looks 

 exactly as if it was a part of the inscription. I notice this the more 

 particularly, because Professor Dowson has thought it possible that 

 this stroke might, if it meant any thing, stand for 100. 



With reference to the names of the Macedonian months, which T. 

 have read in no less than three of these Bactro-Pali inscriptions, 

 Babu Eajendra remarks (see p, 152) that "the system of naming days 

 according to the moon's age is peculiarly Sanskritic, and the division 

 of the month into the light and dark halves of the moon is of Indian 

 or Sanskritic origin." On this point I wish to draw the Babu's 

 attention to the practice of the ancient Greeks, from Homer's time 

 downwards, who divided their months exactly in the same way, namely 

 into the "first" and "second" halves, /x^vos larajxivov being the first 



