1837.] Note on Cot. Sykes* Inscriptions. 1047 



the Christians, or the triangle of the masonic brethren, connected 

 with the religion of the parties. Twenty-four such signs are still in 

 use among the Jains, whose books or traditions may some day instruct 

 us in the allegories they are intended to convey. The present panelled 

 inscription is * on the most western end of the rock near the chambers 

 of the Sainhddri caves.' It runs in the usual strain s 



Sdmadapasakasa putasa, 

 Sivakukhisa daya dhama ddnam, 

 Kapdvibhasa yase niyutakam. 



^m^^^^^m fini^n^TO (?) ^ir^m swPt*to *w%f*p^py 



" The pious and charitable endowment of Siva Kukhi (?) the son of Sa'ma- 

 rapasaka (?) redounding to the glory of this most compassionate person." 



implying doubtless that the chambers had been constructed by the 

 party, for the accommodation of the priests or ascetics who resided 

 on the spot. 



Can we then venture to affirm on the strength of these very brief 

 and detached announcements that we have solved the great ques- 

 tion of the origin of the cave temples of western India, those 

 stupendous works of art which it is calculated must have occupied 

 centuries of labour and mines of wealth to excavate ? The obvious 

 answer is ; — if these inscriptions occupy, as they seem to do, pro- 

 minent and designed places in the works they allude to, they can 

 hardly be imagined to record any thing less than the original con- 

 struction : or when the excavations were of natural formation, at 

 least their embellishment and architectural sculpture. 



In this case we may at once pronounce, from the alphabetic evi- 

 dence, that the caves were thus constructed or embellished a century 

 or two prior to the christian era, when Buddhism flourished in the 

 height of its glory from Cashmir to Ceylon. 



It is certainly an extraordinary circumstance that among all these 

 inscriptions, the title of raja should never occur, and that such great 

 undertakings should appear to have proceeded from private zeal, from 

 obscure individuals neither connected with the court nor with the 

 priesthood ; for neither any where do we discover the familiar titles of 

 Sramana, Bhikhu, Mahdmati nor Arahata in the present inscriptions. 



The above are but a few specimens selected from a mass in the 

 owner's possession, and unimportant compared with those on which we 

 have reason to believe our friends in Bombay are now engaged. From 

 their labours must we impatiently expect the solution to Col. Sykes' 

 question now we are told under re-agitation in England — ' whether the 

 6 R 2 



