630 Translation of Ancient Inscriptions. [July, 



find, but by no means what was fondly anticipated, or what will satisfy 

 the curiosity so long directed to this unusual and curious remnant of 

 antiquity. It merely tells us that a prince, whom nobody ever heard of 

 before, of the name of Dhava, erected it in commemoration of his victo- 

 rious prowess. He was of the Vaishnavi faith, and he occupied the throne 

 he had acquired (at Hastinapura ?) for many years ; but he seems to 

 have died before the monument was completed. As there is no men- 

 tion of royal ancestry we may conclude that he was an usurper. 



The only interesting piece of information it contains, is that Dhava's 

 arms were employed against the Vdhlikas of Sindhu, who were com- 

 bining their forces to invade his territories. 



The Bdhlikas are generally admitted by the learned to be the Bactri- 

 ans, or people of JBalkh : — but here the expression sindhorjitd vdh- 

 likd, the ' conquered Vdhlikas of the Sindhii proves, that at the time of 

 Dhava the Bactrian principalities extended into the valley of the 

 Indus, — and it further proves what we have been led to suspect from 

 the numerous coins with unknown Greek names in the Patijdb, that 

 instead of being totally annihilated by the Scythians 120 years before 

 Christ, the descendants of the Greeks continued to rule perhaps for 

 a century or two after Christ, in the regions south of the Paropamisan 

 range. If the authority of a graven monument of high antiquity be 

 received as preferable to the variable readings of books, we should cor- 

 rect the ^T^ffafT and "^^t^fT of the Ramayana and of Hemachandra's 

 lexicon, to «ilf5f?3fT. 



As in the Allahabad inscriptions, the pillar is called ' his arm of fame,' 

 and the letters engraved thereon are the typical cuts and wounds inflicted 

 on his enemies by his sword writing his immortal fame ! Raja Dhava 

 has left behind him at any rate, a monument of his skill in forging iron, 

 for the pillar is a well wrought circular shaft of iron, longer and nearly 

 as large as the shaft of the Berenice steamer ! 



Here follows the text as corrected by Kamalakanta, in a few 

 letters, which will be seen on comparing it with the plate ; the trans- 

 lation I have kept as nearly literal as it can be rendered, which makes 

 it difficult to follow. 



Transcript of the Delhi Iron pillar Inscription, 



