1841.] Opening of the Topes at the Caves of Kanari. 95 



lapidated, and was penetrated from above to the base, which was built of 

 cut stone. After digging to the level of the ground and clearing away the 

 materials, the workmen came to a circular stone, hollow in the centre, 

 and covered at the top by a piece of gypsum. This contained two 

 small copper urns, in one of which were some ashes mixed with a ruby, 

 a pearl, small pieces of gold, and a small gold box, containing a piece 

 of cloth ; in the other a silver box and some ashes were found. Two 

 copper-plates containing legible inscriptions, in the Lath, or Cave cha- 

 racter ; accompanied the urns, and these, as far as I have yet been 

 able to decypher them, inform us, that the persons buried here were of 

 the Buddhist faith. The smaller of the copper-plates bears an inscrip- 

 tion in two lines, the last part of which contains the Buddhist 

 creed inscribed on the base of the Buddha image from Tirhut, and on 

 the stone extracted from the Tope of Sarnath, near Benares; an 

 excellent commentary on which will be found in Mr. Prinsep's Journal 

 for March and April 1835. The last part of the Kanari inscription, 

 and the copper-plate of which I have now the honor of laying before 

 the members of your Society, corresponds very closely with the text of 

 the inscription from Tirhut. The original in the Lath character stands 

 thus : 



Ye dhaurmahetu prabhava, tesham h^tuTathagata suvacha Teshancha 

 yo nirodha 6vam Vadi Maha Suwanna : 

 which transferred to Devanagri 



may be translated : — " Whatever meritorious acts proceed from cause, of 

 these the source Taihdgata (Buddha) has declared; the opposing 

 principle of these the great One of exalted birth, has also demonstrated.' 

 The only difference between the text of the present inscription and 

 the one from Tirhut, is the last word Suwanna, the Pali for Suvarna in- 

 stead of Sramana ; and which means the golden one, or one of an exalted 

 birth or tribe, and is here evidently an appellative of Bhuddha. In the 

 appendix to Mr. B. H. Hodgson's quotations in proof of his sketch of 



