18-17.] Inscriptions at Oomgd, 1223 



The verses go on with a prayer that the name and good works of 

 the raja, and his genealogical tree, might endure through all ages. 

 Then follow extracts from the Poorans, treating of the blessings accru- 

 ing to those who performed good actions. 



Whoso, say they, shall build a temple to Vishnoo, in any place, 

 expiates all sins, even the greatest of all, that of killing a brahman ; who- 

 so buildeth a temple at a holy place of pilgrimage does even as much 

 again ; he who builds on a hill realizes an hundred times the good, 

 and whoso buildeth on a high peak a thousand. They who build 

 temples to Vishnoo, of brick or stone, ensure not only expiation for 

 themselves and their whole family for as many years as there are 

 bricks or stones, but five thousand generations past and to come, and 

 they will abide in heaven. 



I think it will be admitted that the above is sufficiently florid, 

 yet it records the building of the temple, which is no mean edifice, 

 the pillar of which I gave a sketch, and the many small temples 

 that crown every peak on the cluster of hills commanding the place ; 

 the wells, the tanks, all exist ; so far the inscription is interesting, 

 and it is one of few, if not a sole instance, of the name of the place being 

 handed down unchanged to the present period, as well as the objects 

 described. We are thus enabled to find the period of a particular style 

 of building, which of itself is very useful in forming an estimate of the 

 progress of Hindu architecture. We fix a date at which the worship 

 of Jugnath, Bulbudra and Subudra existed in Behar, at which also 

 various other deities of the Hindu pantheon, were there worshipped or 

 acknowledged ; and I should here observe a compilation containing ail 

 the inscriptions yet brought to light, and to which all that may be 

 found should be added, would be of great value to the archaeologist and 

 historian, by enabling him at once to arrive at valuable conclusions ; 

 and it must have been observed by those who have been at all engaged 

 in such studies, that one inscription aids in the decyphering of another 

 and in forming a connecting link in the chain of historical facts. In il- 

 lustration of this I am tempted to offer an instance which though in- 

 volved in doubt through the nearly illegible state of the inscription, 

 still leaves a probability. 



In an inscription found on a stone in the hills of Sirgoojoh, by Col. 



7 t 



