1838.] Proceedings of the Asiatic Society . 167 



were attended with the greatest care, and here found a peaceful asylum 

 for the infirmities of old age. When an animal broke a limb or was 

 otherwise disabled, his owner brought him to this hospital, where he was 

 received without regard to the caste or nation of his master. In 1772, 

 it contained horses, mules, oxen, sheep, goats, monkeys, poultry, pige- 

 ons, and a variety of birds, also an aged tortoise which was known to 

 have been there 75 years. The most extraordinary ward was that 

 appropriated for rats, mice, bugs, and other noxious vermin, for whom 

 suitable food was provided." (Ham, Hindostan, I. 718.) 



The order for digging wells and planting trees along the sides of the 

 high roads in this edict, is of a similar nature with, but rather more la- 

 conic than that on the Feroz lath, which it may be remembered, specified 

 that the wells were to be half a coss apart, and the trees to be of the 

 mango species : besides which there were to be serais and villages — a 

 provision which seems pointed at in the passage quoted from Ferishta, 

 about Sinsarchand's successor " establishing towns and villages 

 along the Ganges and Jumna." 



The word used for wells at Girnar is kupd, pure Sanskrit : — at 

 Dhaoli it is udapandni as on the pillars, — and so for road, one uses 

 patha, — the other maga (S. marga) as on the pillars ;— and in the 

 same manner one dialect employs manusdnam the other munisdnam, 

 1 of men ;' but of this and other idiomatical peculiarities I shall hereafter 

 have more to say when I shall have presented the remainder of these 

 most interesting relics of antiquity to the Society's notice ; fearing that 

 1 have almost transgressed the bounds of their patience in the observa- 

 tions to which I have been led by the one selected for my theme on the 

 present occasion. 



VIII. — Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. 

 Wednesday evening, the 7th Feb. 1838. 



The Hon'ble Sir Edward Rvan, President, in the chair. 



Charles Fraser, Esq., M. C. Ommaney, Esq., Dr. W. H. Green, and 

 Lieut. A. Bigge, Asst. to the Gov. Genl.'s Agent in Assam, proposed at the 

 last meeting were ballotted for and duly elected members of the Society. 



Dr. Henry Harpur Spry, was proposed by Col. McLeod, seconded by 

 the Secretary. 



Read a letter from Capt. Robert Shortrede, Acting Secretary of the 

 Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, acknowledging the receipt 

 of the 3rd volume of the Mahdbhdrata. 



Also, a letter from Mansur Ahmed, thanking the Society for the copy 

 of Khazanat ul Urn, presented to him for having edited that work 

 gratuitously to its completion, but declining the other copies offered him 

 and requesting in lieu thereof, such volumes of the Alemgiri series as could 

 be spared. Resolved to present him with the 3rd, 4tb, 5th and last volumes, 

 z 2 



