1837.] on the Allahabad pillar. 969 



general Garstin, the passion for recording visits of piety or curiosity 

 has been at work, and will only end with the approaching re-estab- 

 lishment of the pillar in its perpendicular pride under the auspices of 

 the British government. The welcome order has I believe at last been 

 given to Captain Smith, and there can be little presumption in attri- 

 buting it to the urgent representations of the Asiatic Society. 



The anomalous nourish (No 16) which I before mistook for a pecu- 

 liar writing, is apparently merely a series of ill drawn shanks or shells, 

 a common Buddhist emblem. One was depicted last month, found by 

 Captain Burnes on a Buddhist sculpture at Hund near Attock. 



Let us now turn our attention to the Samudra gupta inscription 

 (No. 2.) and see what new light Capt. Smith's labours have thrown up- 

 on it : — and here I most sincerely regret that lean no longer make over 

 this portion of my task to my friend Dr. Mill himself, that we might 

 benefit by the critical acumen with which he would test the numerous 

 alterations suggested or necessitated in the former version by the infal- 

 lible text now placed in our hands. I must solicit every indulgence 

 for having ventured to undertake the examination myself. 



I began by comparing the whole document, letter for letter, with 

 Lieut. Burt's original lithograph and with Dr. Mill's transcript hav- 

 ing the Latin interlineation, in the third volume of the Journal ; — but 

 so numerous were the changes required, that I soon found it indispen- 

 sable to recopy the original on lithographic paper, and thus to present 

 a fresh edition exactly as it stands on the column, shewing where the 

 stone is peeled off or cut away by other writing, and where the real 

 commencement and termination of some lines can be positively de- 

 pended on. 



First, then, there have been not less than five lines erased at the 

 upper part of the inscription. One or two letters in each line can be 

 still readily distinguished by their peculiar form in the midst of the 

 modern Ndgari cut upon the excided parts. No conjecture can be 

 made as to the contents of this portion, but Dr. Mill will doubtless 

 be happy to find that the fragment in the fifth line (the first of the for- 

 mer version) will no longer require the strange interpretation of 

 ursumque lupus aureus in silvd, which the Burt copy constrained him to 

 adopt. 



In the next place, contrary to Dr. Mill's expectation, the whole of 

 the upper or broken part of the inscription containing ten lines, be- 

 sides perhaps six erased, proves to be metrical. 



The poetical measure is variable : the greater portion is in the srag- 



