576 Interpretation of the inscription [July, 



nothing yet to fear. Nevertheless (if I have read the passage aright) 

 opposition was contemplated as conversion should proceed, and the 

 weapons prescribed to meet it are *' the foolishness of preaching," 

 and a stedfast adherence to ordinances. Meantime the example of 

 royal benevolence was exercised in a way to conciliate the Ndnapdsan- 

 das, the Gentiles of every persuasion, by the planting of trees along 

 the roadsides, by the digging of wells, by the establishment of bazars 

 and serais, at convenient distances. Where are they all ? On what road 

 are we now to search for these venerable relics, these banyan trees and 

 mangoes, which, with the aid of Professor Candolle's theory*, would 

 enable us to confirm the assumed date of our monuments ? The lat 

 of Feroz is the only one which alludes to this circumstance, and we 

 know not whence that was taken to be set up in its present situation 

 by the emperor Feroz in the 14th century — whether it had stood 

 there from the first ? or whether it was re-erected when it received the 

 inscription recording the victories of Visala deva in the Samvat year 

 1220 or A. D. 1163 ? — This cannot be determined without a careful 

 re-examination of the ruinous building surrounding the pillar, which 

 I hope some of my antiquarian friends will undertake. The chambers 

 described by Captain Hoare as a menagerie and aviary may have been 

 so adapted from their original purpose as cells for the monastic 

 priesthood — a point which the style of their architecture may settle. 

 The neighbourhood should also be examined for traces of a vihdra, a 

 holy tree, a road, and boulees or large pakka wells : — the texture of 

 the stone also should be noticed, that the quarry whence it was 

 brought may be discovered, for now that we know so much of its 

 history we feel a vivid curiosity to pry into the further secrets of this 

 interesting silastambha, even to the difficulties and probably cost of its 

 transport, which, judging from the inability of the present Government 

 to afford the expense even of setting the Allahabad pillar upright on 

 its pedestal, must have fallen heavily on the coffers of the Ceylon 

 monarch ! 



But I must now close these desultory remarks, in the hope of here- 

 after rendering them more worthy of the object by future study and re- 

 search ; and proceed to lay before the Society, first a correct version of 

 the inscription in its own character, and then in Roman letters which I 

 have preferred to Nagari, because the Pali language has been already 

 made familiar to that type by MM. Bournouf and Lassen, as well as 

 by Mr. Turnour's great edition of the Mahdvansa, now just issued 

 from the press. 



* See translation of his Essay on the Longevity of Plants, J. A. S. vol. Ill 

 p. 196. 



