1838] from Girnar in Gujerat, 343 



man and overcomer of difficulties, surrounded by his overseers (pattis), 

 — by him, the establisher of religious fame, and the increaser of the 

 glory of his master, was this work executed*." 



Observations. 



I have already remarked that in this inscription for the first time we 

 find the name of the great Chandragupta the contemporary of 

 Alexander recorded on a genuine monument of antiquity. There 

 can be no doubt of his identity because his family name Maurya is 

 added, and further the name of his grandson, the no less famous Asoka 

 immediately follows designated also by the same family cognomen of 

 Maurya. (See PI. XIX. for the passages containing the two names.) 



On first discovering this important fact and perusing the mutilated 

 fragment with Kamalakanta pandit, as well as we could make it out, 

 I thought myself in possession of a record of the time at least of Asoka, 

 by whose deputy or viceroy the bridge seemed to have been completed. 

 The long string of complimentary epithets which fill up the bulk of the 

 inscription being in the instrumental case, and thus agreeing with the 

 Yavana rdjena of the upper sentence. 



This turns out not to be precisely the case. A considerable period 

 is embraced in the history of the Girnar bridge — partly anterior and 

 partly subsequent to the time of Chandragupta : — thus it seems 

 originally to have been erected by a prince named Swa'mi Chashta'na 

 a name rather Persian than Indian : — it was then either repaired or more 

 probably completed by his son Arida'ma' or Atrida'ma' in the month 

 of Mdrgasirsha or Agrahayana — in the year 72, but the letters which 

 follow are unfortunately illegible, and we are left in the dark as to the 

 era then in use for recording events. 



The bridge was then totally destroyed by an inundation of the river 

 Paleshini, a name I cannot discover in the map of Gujerat. Thus tem- 

 porarily repaired perhaps by the inhabitants it was again carried away ; 

 and a more thorough reparation was commenced under orders from 

 Chandragupta maurya by his prefect of the province Pupyagupta, 

 and completed in the reign of Asoka his grandson thirty or forty years 

 afterwards by his Greek officer, for so I think we may understand Yavana 

 raja. The brahmanical population of the distant province of Surdshtra 

 probably had but little affection for the Buddhist monarch who is not 

 even honored in the inscription with the title of raja — being simply styled 

 Asoka the maurya ! The name of his Greek employe is not very 

 * Anushthitam ^frrfgrT, accomplished. The same word is used at the foot of the 

 Allahabad inscription— (vol. VI. 978). But I know not how it there eluded the 

 apprehension of the pandit who made me write in lieu of it ^"^f^gjct ' remaining 

 firm or fixed.' 



2x 



