~ 



Bra an r 



38 Note on the Bactro-Pali Inscription from Taxila. [No. 1 



or waxing half of the moon, and fxrjvo? (jiOcvovros being the second or 

 waning half of the moon. This mode of computing the days of the 

 month fell into disuse before the time of Alexander, as he is recorded 

 to have died on the 28th day of Daesius. 



I may note here, with reference to early dated inscriptions,that Profes- 

 sor Hall's conjecture that the Budha Gupta inscription of Eran had a 

 figured date of three cyphers, as well as a written one, is correct. The date 

 is given in figures, San 165. The middle figure is the same as that to 

 which Mr. Thomas has assigned the value of 50 ; but the true 50 is form- 

 ed thus, "J , and the 60 both of this inscription and of the coin is found 



differently thus, J . The cypher for 40 as found on Skanda Gupta's 



coins is like the Bactrian eh, Vf , or the pt in Gupta characters. 

 The decimal cypher on Budha Gupta's coins I read as 70. In the early 

 Indian system of notation, there would appear to have been two dis- 

 tinct cyphers for 100. Thus on the Gupta coins, and in the early 

 Mathura inscriptions, I find the Bactrian letter *£, or h, the initial 

 of hat or 100 in the spoken dialects of the West ; but on the early 

 coins of Ujain as well as in the inscriptions of the Balabhi copper 

 plates, the cypher for 100 is the old Nagari ^ or s —the initial 

 letter of sat, or 100 ; and this same letter is still used in Malabar in the 

 old form as the cypher for 100. The other centenary numbers are 

 formed by attaching the units on the right hand of the cypher for 100 

 thus nfj- is 200, «£ is 300, and ^ is 500, in the series formed 



from <T) . In the other series we have % or % for 100, and also 



*y for 100 in the Budha Gupta inscription, and in one of the later 



Mathura inscriptions I find the date of Samvatsara ^TCLQ which I 

 read as 780, but with considerable hesitation. This system of forming 

 the hundreds by joining the unit figures to the centenary cypher 

 I showed to Mr. Griffith of the Benares College, as well as to 

 Mr. Bayley some two or three years ago. For the cypher of 500 1 am 

 indebted to Dr. Bhau Daji : but, as will be seen above, I do not agree 

 with him m the forms of the figures for 200 and 300. 



MM 



