1838.] rocks of Girnar in Gujerat,and Dhauli in Cuttack. 227 



revolting condemnation of other systems. Even the insulated Jew 

 could see nothing in them at variance with his own Mosaic command- 

 ments, and the title of the Indian religion every where resounded was 

 one familiar to himself, — dharma ' the law.' It would be an agreeable 

 task to follow up the train of investigation which here opens itself to 

 the imagination : — to estimate and to trace the effect of the introduc- 

 tion of the Samanean principles on the prevailing opinions of the day 

 in Antioch, and in Alexandria, as well as in Persia and Bactria, where 

 the efforts to amalgamate the buddhist with the mithraic worship are 

 matter of history ; — but this is too vast a field of speculation for me to 

 enter, and many may deem our ground as yet too slight and unstable 

 to be made the foundation of any new views. 



The intercourse thus proved to have been maintained at this early 

 date between India, that is buddhist India, and the western nations, 

 may help us to explain another circumstance which has lately been for- 

 cibly brought to our attention by Mr. L Wilkinson, namely, the close 

 agreement between the Buddhist system of astronomy and the Ptole- 

 maic. In opposing the absurd system of the brahmanical puranas they 

 had the advantage of all the knowledge derived from Syria and Egypt ; 

 and we thus have a clue to the compilation of the Siddhantas, which 

 may be of the utmost importance in reviewing what has been written 

 on Hindu astronomy by Colebrooke and Bentley. 



Another prolific source of speculation, now that we know of the close 

 connection between the Indians and the Greeks at the age in which the 

 Bhilsa and similar monuments were erected, will be to determine what of 

 history can be extracted from the decidedly Greek scenes depicted in 

 the exquisite sculpture of some of these remains. 



But all this I throw out merely to enable others to place a proper 

 value upon the evidence which a mere hint, a mere single word, in a 

 stone record of indubitable antiquity, brings to the elucidation of so 

 many disputed questions : not that I have leisure or ability to make the 

 application myself. What the learned world demands of us in India, is to 

 be quite certain of our data, to place the monumental record before them 

 exactly as it now exists, and to interpret it faithfully and literally, as the 

 document says itself, * without exaggeration and without extenuation.' 



Anxious then to possess a copy of the text as perfect as it is possible 

 to be made by the facsimile process, I have thought it my duty to 

 interest the public authorities in effecting this desirable object. I 

 confidently anticipate that the nobleman at the head of our government, 

 and the patron of our Society will accede to my suggestion that 

 Lieut. Postans, a zealous young officer now in Cutch, should be deputed 



