38 Facsimiles of Ancient Inscriptions, [Jan. 



Soma, known by another appellation as Vyaghrarati*. His own son 

 was Madra, the constant and friendly patron of brahmans, gurus, 

 and yatis. He, struck with awe at beholding the universal instability 

 of this world, made (for himself) a road of virtuef ; having- set up 

 (established) along the roadside, five images, made of quarried stone, of 

 Indra, objects of adoration to the religious and devout, for the increase 

 of his own moral merit and the happiness of mankind; (the same) having 

 attached thereto a tank filled with water. 



This stone pillar, beautiful and lofty as the craggy pinnacles of the 

 mountains, is the maker of renown : (i. e. records his meritorious act.)" 



The circumstance of chief importance in the above monument, is its 

 allusion to ' Skanda Gupta, of the family of the Guptas,' a name 

 so well known to us from the Bhitari inscription and from our Canouj 

 coins. That his sway was nearly as potent as the expression ' lord of a 

 hundred kings' would seem to convey, I shall have hereafter occasion 

 to prove by the exhibition of his own name and of that of his prede- 

 cessor Kumara Gupta on the coins of Saurashtra or Kattyw&r on 

 the western extremity of the Indian continent. The death of this prince 

 is here employed as an epoch in a somewhat enigmatical way. Accord- 

 ing to the ordinary mode of interpretation, the several figures should 

 be set down from the right to the left hand; thus 30 -f- 2 -f- 1+100 

 should be written 1001230 ; but, as this would be evidently ridiculous, 

 I have rather summed the whole together as '133 years after the 

 death of Skanda.' It does not appear who succeeded him, or whether 

 the Gupta dynasty there terminated ; but I think it is open to conjec- 

 ture that the whole power was usurped by the minister's family, because 

 we find Til a Bhatti, a chief magistrate, erecting the Allahabad pil- 

 lar, and we here finda nother of the same name, the opulent Bhatti 

 Soma, the son of Amila (Bhatti ?) at the head of a new race, not to 

 be sure arrogating to themselves the title of rdja, but possessing 

 wealth and power and erecting pillars in their own name. Four gene- 

 rations from Amila, viz: 1 Amila, 2 Bhatti Soma, 3 Rudra 

 Soma, 4 Madra — will give about 33 years to each generation, which 

 for private life may be tolerably near the ordinary average. 



The five Indras% may possibly be the five figures stated by Mr. 

 Liston to be carved, four on the upper part, and one on the lower of 



* Punyaskandham sa chakkre ; in punning allusion perhaps to bis adorning 

 the road with these five images. 



t The word seems to be written Pachaindrdm from the contracted space occupied 

 by the n of VFQ. The small figure below has very much the character of Buddha. 



J The lover of (the hunting of) tigers. 



