568 Interpretation of the inscription [July, 



have rendered good service by supplying a vowel, or an anuswara requir- 

 ed for the plural of a verb, omitted through mistake in the smaller copy. 



In contriving a fount of type adapted to this ancient and highly 

 elegant form of Ndgari, I have made but a few insignificant alterations 

 which I trust will not be thought unwarrantable. — The [], 0» ana * 0» 

 being of smaller size than the other letters in the original : — I have 

 elongated them to square with the rest. The vowels also are in the 

 original attached to the sides of these letters as []- bd, Q J thi, -© the; 

 I have made them Q, 0> to avoid an unseemly gap. The letter ( 

 is inflected on the centre with 4 and d thus -( , £ ; these I have for 

 uniformity made ( , ( : it is necessary to notice this, lest consulters 

 of the originals should imagine I had been taking liberties with my 

 materials. For the compound vowel o also I have been forced to 

 content myself with a prolonged stroke (the e and a united) as _L no, 

 in lieu of the more elegant break given in the original to shew 

 the two vowel marks as jt n0 ' Nothing material however is lost 

 through these trifling modifications ; while with them the ancient 

 alphabet becomes easier to print, and certainly easier to read, than the 

 more complicated letters of the (so-called) perfected (Samskrita) al- 

 phabet of the brahmans. 



The four inscriptions facing the four cardinal points on the pillar, 

 appear to be enclosed in frames and to be each complete in itself. 

 These four edicts are repeated verbatim on the three other lats, with 

 exception of the lower half of the eastern tablet which is wanting in 

 all, as is likewise the long inscription round the shaft below the 

 separate tablets. 



On the other hand the Allahabad pillar has five short insulated 

 lines at foot* which are not to be found elsewhere. They are curious 

 from their allusion three times to the second queen of Devanampiya ; 

 but from the incompleteness of the lines on the right hand the 

 context cannot thoroughly be explained : the three letters at the end 

 of the third line look line numerals. 



"!> SI' UL rCi dilrUA A A lr 8 A" 

 AAA"!- >lrA &X.£l>A*i?l 

 £-DAr J + A~ H-J"8A F±"lO» 



» See plate IV. of Vol. III. 



