1837.] Inscriptions on the columns at Delhi, fyc. 1059 



the most classical in Ceylon, the sentence would be written as follows : Etan 

 Dewdnanpiya dha : iyan dhanmalipi at ha atthasildt hambani WesdUtiha-lekhdniwa 

 iatka (tatha) katd ; tena fad chiratthitikd siyd. 



" Df/wa'nan'piya delivered this (injunction). Thereafter eight stone columns 

 have been erected in different quarters like the inscriptions on Dha/nmo 

 established at Wesdli. By this means this (inscription) will be perpetuated 

 for ever." 



If this reading be correct*, as I have said before, we have still five 

 more of these columns to discover in India. 



I would wish to notice here that there are several errata in the 

 Pali quotations in the July journal occasioned, probably, by the in- 

 distinction of the writing of my copyist. I mention this merely to 

 prevent Pali scholars from inferring that those errata are peculiarities 

 in the orthography of that language as known in Ceylon. For in- 

 stance in page 586, you quote me as translating Viyodhanmd " pe- 

 rishable things," whereas the words ought to have been " Waya-dhan- 

 md." 



The inscription fronting north (as corrected by Mr. Turnour.) 



1. De'wananpiya Pandu s6 raja h^wan aha '• Sattawisati 



2. wasa abhisit£na me" iyan danmalipi likhapita- 



3. hi. Dantapurato Dasanan upadayin, ananta agaya danmakamataya 



4. agayaparikhaya, agayasasanaya, ag^na bhayena, 



5. ageVduusah^na ; dsachakho mama amisathiya. 



6. Dhanmapdkha, dhanmakamatacha, suwe' suwe\ wadhita. wadhisantichewa. 



7. Purisapicha m£, rakusacha, gawayacha matimacha anuwidhiyantu 



8. sanpatipadayantucha, aparanchaparancha samadayit\v& h£me\v& anta 



9. mahamatapi. E'sahiwidhi ya iyan, dhanmena palita, dhanmena widhinfc 



10. dhanmena sikhayata, dhanmena galili." D^wananpiya Pandu s6 raja 



11. hewan aha : " Dhanm6 sadhukiyancha dhanm£ti. Apasananwabahukanyani 



* This reading involves so many alterations of the text that I must demur to 

 it, especially as on re-examination I find it possible to improve my own reading so 

 as to render it (in my own opinion at least) quite unobjectionable. The correc- 

 tion I allude to is in the reading of dthd, which from the greater experience I 

 have now gained of the equivalents of particular letters, I am inclined to read 

 as the Sanskrit verb dstdt (Piti dthd). — The whole sentence Sanskritized will be 

 found to differ in nothing from the Pali — except in that stambha is masculine in 

 the former and neuter in the latter : — and that the verb kataviyd is required to 

 agree with it. 



lyam dharmalipi at a &stdt t sila-stambhd (ni)vd siladharikd(ni)vd talah kar- 

 taviyd (nij, ena (or yenaj eshd chirasthiti sydt. 



*' In order that this religious edict may stand (remain), stone pillars and stone 

 slabs (or receptacles) shall be accordingly prepared ;— by which the same may 

 endure unto remote ages." 



Athd might certainly be read as ashto eight, but the construction of the sen- 

 tence is thereby much impaired, and further it is unlikely that any definite 

 number should be fixed upon, without a parallel specification of the places wher^ 

 they should be erected. — Ed. 



