288 Translation of the inscription en a Bell [ AfRiL, 



It seems that about the beginning of the seventeenth century the king" 

 of Pegu being invaded by his neighbour the Burmese sovereign of 

 Pagahm (Pugan the ancient capital described by Colonel Burney in 

 the J. A. S. Vol. IV. p. 400) called in the aid of his ally the king of 

 Mnrtaban, whom, after gaining his object, he sought treacherously to 

 destroy : — but he became justly the victim of his own stratagem, and 

 was defeated by the Martaban king who forthwith possessed himself 

 of Threehenthawuddee*, {Pegu?) having the four cognomens of Yad- 

 zatannee, Bydzatannee> Yattatanee and Yougutannee. He is then 

 represented to have endeavoured to extirpate some heresy that offended 

 the sect of Buddhists he brought with him, by scattering the obnoxious 

 articles: and the final act which the inscription records is its own 

 construction for the worthy object of sounding an alarm that should 

 reach the royal ear when any injustice was crying aloud in the streets ; 

 this was in the year 984 which if it be reckoned in the vulgar Burmese 

 era will correspond with A. D. 1622. 



We cannot help regretting that such a monument should have been 

 removed from the place where it had a name, a history, and an object. 

 to be lost in an obscure Hindu temple in the northwest of India ! We 

 know that such sacrilege, for by no other name can we call the plunder 

 of a place of worship, was prohibited ; but the preventive checks must 

 have been small indeed that could take no cognizance of the removal of* 

 a mass weighing 31 hundred weight ! We should like to see the bell 

 claimed by our civil commissioner and restored by our government, 

 as an act more likely than any other to ingratiate us with the people 

 of Arracun. We would even compensate in cash the Resaladar, if his 

 conscience would not readily concede the bell from his temple when told 

 that it belonged to the hated and impure followers of Buddha ! 



WithRATNA Paula's aid we have given the correct Pali orthogra- 

 phy of many words wrongly spelt on the Bell. — Ed. 



Burma Version. 



ooggoo^p (,) oooS^aSngScooS^ coo5oc$coo5 

 @§ccoocq(^sgo5^0QCXDo^oo|ti (2) cq^cco5@§coo5 



gDODCXX5.OCXD0CO^0C00S|'Sc300gll o£^gO$OCg$COo5CjJ 



* Srihansavati, possessed of swans, a name generally applied to Rangoon. 

 The four epithets are Suaskrit name*- Rajadhant, Vidyadhani, Ratnadhdnf aud 

 Yodhadhanl, the abode of royalty, learning, jewels and warriors. 



