4 Decipherment of a Sanskrit Inscription. [No. 1. 



2. May Bharati,* who dispels the darkness of the world's stoli- 

 dity, as the light of the sun dissipates the gloom of night, confer 

 upon you celebrity for increase in the power of discourse. 



3. May the matted locks of Pmakin,t resembling, in colour, black 

 bees on the water-lily, and adorning the quarters ; and his menacing 

 utterances ; and the regulated evolutions of him whose abode is on 

 the jambu-beSLvmg mountain ;J bestow upon you prosperity. 



In the year twelve hundred and seventy-five, or, in numerals, 

 1275 ; on Saturday, the fifth day of the moon's increase in Mdrga :§ 

 when, in the happily || thriving city o/Dhara, was held the govern- 

 ment — whose fortunes and successes were greatly increasing through- 

 out the earth — of the feet of the fortunate Devapala Deva ; endowed 

 with all excellencies ; resplendent with the decoration of the five 

 great titles which he had obtained fl[ supreme sovereign, great king, 



* Or Saraswati ; the goddess of learning. A victim to the incestuous passion 

 of her father, Brahma, she is fabled to have been childless. 



f That is, S'iva ; from pindka, his bow, or trident. 



% This is an epithet of Pinakin, with which word it might, in translating, have 

 been placed in opposition. 



Mandara, or else Merumandara, is the mountain on which stands, according to 

 the Puranas, a gigantic jambu-tree, the Eugenia Jamboo. 



There is an allusion here to the boisterous dance of S'iva, the tdndava, 



§ Or Mdrgds'irsha, as below. 



|| The position and use, in this place, of swasti, 'happily,' are peculiar. An- 

 other interpretation is, however, admissible. 



% The Sanskrit of the words from ' endowed' to ' obtained' is identical witli a 

 clause which Colebrooke renders with an expression of distrust as to his under- 

 standing the whole of it. See his Miscellaneous Essays, Vol. II., p. 303, note. 



It may be erroneous to take samastapras astopeta as an independent expression. 

 Again, but for the order of the original words, it might be considered that ' the 

 five great titles' are enumerated in ' supreme sovereign,' &c. Only four of these 

 denominations are, however, specified, on some occasions where the five titles are 

 spoken of in proximate connexion with them. See, for instance, Colebrooke 

 ubi supra. 



Mr. Walter Elliot says : " Lord of the pancha rnahds'abda, or ' five great 

 sounds,' is a title always joined with that of mahd-mandales'wara, and never with 

 that of the sovereign, in any of the more modern inscriptions. It does, however, 

 occur among the titles of Pulakes'in, in the copper inscription of Capt. Jervis." 

 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. IV. p. 33, note. All that can safely be 



