434 Examination of the Inscription [May, 



whether this proceeds from stupidity or a disinclination to impart any 

 information respecting their faith and practices, I know not. I must 

 not however omit to mention a trifling exception to this rule in one of 

 the sect at Bhooj, Gorji Punjaji, who to some trifling acquirements of 

 Sanskrit, adds a knowledge of the poetry peculiar to this province, as well 

 as that of Mar tear, of which latter he is a native; his books are all writ- 

 teninwhatis styled the Gwalior bhdkhd* /he is also sufficiently acquaint- 

 ed with astrology and astronomy, to cast nativities, and foretell fates : 

 this latter accomplishment is quite sufficient to secure him great influ- 

 ence with the people of Bhooj, whose superstition, even for natives, ex- 

 ceeds all bounds. Although the three towns, before mentioned, are fur- 

 nished with their proportion of Thd?ias, (sthanas) or places of Jain wor- 

 ship, the structure at Badrdnagri is the only one in the province with 

 which I am acquainted deserving the title of a temple ; it is, according 

 to all accounts, as ancient as the oldest of those at mount A' bit, and 

 although not erected of such costly materials is a beautiful "specimen 

 of its style of architecture, denoting either greater prosperity at Badrd- 

 nagri than is known in the trading towns at present, or a greater de- 

 gree of zeal in the Jain sectarians of its period. 



Note Punjaji, in accordance with a system which attains in Cutch, 



of giving lands and villages, in endm, to fakirs, peers, and jogies, has a 

 village in his possession. The religious establishments of the Khanphaties 

 and Kaprias alone, possess between them not less than thirty villages. 

 True, they apply the revenue thus derived to charitable purposes, but 

 numerous are the instances in which it is otherwise appropriated, and 

 the revenue consequently suffers to support the least useful, if not the 

 most worthless, members of a community. 



Anjar, 20th August, 1887. 



VIII. — Examination of the separate edicts of the Aswastama inscrip' 

 Hon at Dhauli in Cuttack. (Plate X.J By James Prinsep, 

 Sec. $c. 



I now return from Girndr to the spot on the opposite side of the 

 peninsula connected with it in so curious a manner, to render an account 

 of the two edicts, which I postponed on my notice of the double version 

 in March, as being of a local nature. My readers will however, in the 

 first instance, wish to know more of the locality, and of the circujnstance 

 of the discovery of these Dhauli inscriptions, which, though situated, 

 as it appears, close to the highroad at Bhuwaneswar t had entirely 

 * Magadhi Bhasa.— W. H. W. 



