974 Reexamination of the various Inscriptions [Nov. 



Passing over the panegyric about his restoring the descendants of 

 long deposed kings, which however is a fact not to be slightly regarded 

 in a historical point of view, we come to another very curious passage ; 

 ' Daivaputra shdhi ; shdhdnashdhi, saka, murundaih ; sainhddrika adi- 

 bhis cha,- — sarva dwipavdsibhir, 8fC. 



Here we have a picture of his foreign relations, the nations who 

 used to send him presents, or tribute of jewels, coin, horses, fruit, and 

 even their daughters ! First, Daivaputra shahi C«rTi%), ' the heaven-des- 

 cended king :' this title would apply to the Parthian kings who are 

 styled in the well known triple inscriptions, EKrENOrS GEftN, and on 

 the common Sassanian coins, "offspring of the divine race of gods." 

 But the two first letters are slightly obliterated and might be read 

 either Ddbha, or Ddra-putra : the latter, ' son of Darius' would still 

 apply to the same parties, and this is confirmed by the next words 

 TI^Tr«nnf% in which we recognize the very Persian title »L*JUl& 



• king of kings,' which prevailed to the extinction of the Sassanian 

 dynasty in the seventh century, so that here at any rate we have a 

 limit to the modernicity of our inscription. Of the Sakas so much has 

 been said that it is not requisite to dwell long on them : they are the 

 Parthians of Wilford's chronological table of Indian dynasties; others 

 identify them with the Sacse, the Scythians, the Sakya tribe of Bud- 

 dhist notoriety, and the Vikramdditya opponents who introduced the 

 Saka era. The Murundas, according to Wilford*, are a branch of the 

 Indo- Scythians who succeeded the Parthians, and in fact the same as 

 the Hunas or Huns. Thirteen kings of this dynasty, he says, reigned 

 in the northern parts of India. " They are the Morundce of Ptolemy, 

 who were masters of the country to the north of the Ganges from 

 Delhi to Gaur and Bengal. They are declared in the Puranas to be 

 Mlechhas, impure tribes, and of course they were foreigners. The 

 same are called Maryanthes by Oppian in his Cynogetics, who says that 

 the Ganges runs through their country." 



Sainhddri, the country of the lion Sinha, might safely be identified 

 with Sinhala, or Ceylon : especially as it is followed by Sarva-dwipa, 



* all the isles,' which must refer to the anca diva of Wilford, (the 

 Laccadives ?) called by Ptolemy the Aigidice\ ; but I find a more plau- 

 sible elucidation in Col. Sykes' memoir on the geology of the Dakhan. 

 which informs us that Sainhddri is the proper name of the hilly range 

 to which we give the appellation ' Western Ghats.' 



As a proud peroration to this formidable list of allies and tributaries, 

 the poet winds up with the brief epithet words prithivydm apratira- 

 * As. Res. VIII. 113, and table. f As. Res. VIII. 186. 



