18-19.] discovered on a Spur of the Satpoorak Range. 943 



Wilson conceives however, and is there met by the Behar inscriptions, 

 that it received its final overthrow in the 12th century. The date of 

 those I have given above would certainly indicate that the religion 

 every where had survived the persecution in the 9th century of Sankara 

 Acharya and Kumarilla Batta, and I hope to shew presently that the 

 Jain temples at Woon, not 80 miles distant from Bawangaj, were, if 

 not built, at least repaired, and a colossal figure set up in the reign of 

 Yasovarma Deva, sovereign of Dhar in 1192, fourth in descent from the 

 3d Raja Bhoja. Mr. Ferguson thinks the Gwalior figures to be of 

 the 11 or 12 century, — an assumption which would imply a degenera- 

 tion in the arts gradatim, or in ignorance of those of previous ages, 

 which is contrary to the experience of all nations. It is scarcely 

 probable for such a descent to have occurred from the beautiful and 

 finished sculpture of the caves of previous centuries, both before and 

 after the year of our Lord, to such rudeness and disproportion. Major 

 Delamaine asserts that none of the temples at Mandu are earlier than 

 the 12th century. There were several inscriptions in the Balbood 

 character in the Bawangaj temple on each side, but I had not time 

 to copy them, subsequently however I obtained the services of a pun- 

 dit to do so, and he sent me four, one from each side, leaving one 

 very old uncopied, it being too much worn to be taken off. Perhaps 

 from this very one we may yet learn more than all the others put 

 together. 



The inscriptions he has sent consist of four or five, and from the 

 Sanskrita form of the letters and modes of expression, do not appear 

 very ancient : there is a possibility of his having departed from the 

 real character of the letters and transcribed them in modern Balbood, 

 the language best known to himself, but I think that this is not the 

 case, from his having gone out of his way to explain in Sanskrita the 

 meaning he conceived to pertain to them, his version being very wide 

 of the mark ; for this reason I consider them facsimilar and not 

 without their interest. They are inscribed one upon each wall of the 

 temple, and one over the door, and bear distinct dates, with an interval 

 of 293 years — nearly 3 centuries — and it is remarkable that the name of 

 the temple should be preserved or adhered to for so long a time, consi- 

 dering the peculiar ideas of the Jains regarding names. The inscriptions 

 which are on the eastern and southern walls, bear date Sumbut 1223, of 



2 f 6 



