34 Facsimiles of Ancient Inscriptions. [Jan. 



The people of the village had no tradition to offer regarding the erec- 

 tion of the column, but it was generally agreed by them and others that 

 no one who had made the attempt had been able to decipher the cha- 

 racter, though it had occasionally been visited by natives of learning who 

 had essayed the task. 



The pillar is of a very compact sandstone and the letters deeply and 

 clearly carved. Should it be my lot to return to the purgunnah, I 

 shall be most happy, if you intimate that the inscription contains matter 

 of importance, to endeavour to take an accurate impression of it, so that 

 it may be submitted to the examination of those who have studied the 

 characters of such inscriptions, exactly as it appears on the column. 



The base of the pillar to the height of four and a half feet is a square 

 of one foot ten inches. At 4-6 it is wrought into an octagonal forai, 

 and it is on the three northern faces of this portion of the column that 

 the inscription is found. The accompanying sketch which I have 

 attempted will serve to give an idea of the appearance of the column. 

 The base portion on the western side has a naked male figure in relief 

 carved on it, two females kneel at his feet and behind him is a snake 

 coiled, gifted with seven heads which form a sort of canopy over the 

 hero or god. On each aspect of the square portion of the column at 

 the upper end is also a figure in relief, and the whole is topped by a 

 metal spike, on which most probably was fixed a lion or Singh, but that 

 has disappeared ; not a fragment even remaining as evidence of its for- 

 mer existence. 



II. At Bhdgalpur in tuppuh Bulleah, the next to i>hat of Myle to 

 the east, and five miles S. E. of Kuhaon, is another pillar with traces of 

 an inscription consisting of twenty-one lines ; some pains, however, have 

 been taken to destroy the engraving, and I fear that any attempt to 

 read it now must prove vain. I enclose as correct a copy as I could 

 take of the two first lines, together with a heading which I suspect to be 

 newar than the rest. What I now transmit is the most distinct portion 

 of the inscription ; perhaps an impression of what remains of the letters 

 might be got, and if you think that there would be any advantage in 

 attaining this object I shall endeavour to have it effected. This pillar 

 is entirely round and is smaller than that at Kuhaon, but of the same 

 description of material ; viz. hard compact sandstone; it is 17 or 18 feet 

 in height and about 20 inches in diameter ; nothing beyond the shaft 

 remains standing ; but a portion of a capital lies near, and a baiargi 

 who occupies a hut close by reported, that five years ago a storm upset 

 a Hsula and singh from the column, and that the fragments of the 

 ruins had been stolen by travellers. The bairagi's information was not 



