1838.] at Dhauli in Cuttack* 455 



But I am growing too fond of quotations from my constant text book 

 the MahawansOy which falls in so pleasantly with every trifling inci- 

 dent collaterally deducible from these inscriptions that I find the tempta- 

 tion to extract, like Asoka's orders, irresistible ! 



I have still one subject to call briefly to the attention of the student, 

 namely, the twice repeated name of Isa or Isd?ia. The pandit would 

 apply this name to God in a general sense :■ — and certainly the grievous 

 offence given, Isaya asulopena, ' by sacrifice of living things to God' 

 is a sense quite consistent with the tenor of the edict ; but through the 

 extreme vagueness of the Pali imitative grammar, Isaya also represents 

 the third case of isa, "t^T, \$W\ irshayd < by envy :' so that it is 

 impossible to assert which of the two is correct. The other instance is 

 in the passage * Isanarneva mannata manam? which I have translated 

 ' worship ye the lord, the proper object of worship' (TJKT'T^" ffTqn K\~*$) 

 but I hold myself by no means responsible for its accuracy, as I do not 

 find Isa among the synonymes of Buddha. 



I may conclude my notes by mentioning the singular effect of the 

 idiomatical expressions khanahhanasi antaldpi tisena upon the pandi^ 

 who had been reading all these inscriptions with me — ' Now' he 

 exclaimed * I believe the whole document to be genuine !' — He had all 

 along misgivings whether he had not been at work on a haphazard 

 jumble of old symbols optionally transcribed into as unintelligible 

 Nagari, until the occurrence of a homely idiomatical phrase at once 

 brought him to a conviction of their reality, and encouraged him more 

 zealously to help me to their meaning ! 



Postscript. — I had well nigh forgotten to mention the two modern 

 inscriptions stated in Mr. Kittoe's account to be scratched over some 

 of the caves near Aswastama. They are lithographed in PI. XXV, 

 On reference to PL LIV. of last volume, the larger one will be seen 

 to agree in alphabet and in the opening paragraph with the inscription 

 over the elephant cave at Udayagiri — but the name of the raja in 

 whose reign they were both cut is better developed in the present speci- 

 men. Shantikara deva, is not to be found in the Orissa list, but is 

 probably one of the Suryavamsa, as he has not the epithet Kesari ; or 

 he may be one of the 32 princes whose names Stirling has omitted as 

 uninteresting. The curious figure in the second line, I suppose from 

 analogy to {g, to be the figure 9. As far as it is legible, the legend 

 may be thus restored : 



^TOfe*n * zivfam (?) ^rf%^r: 



