390 On the Epoch of the Gupta Dynasty. [No. 5. 



time are so much similar to those of the Guptas, that it is impos- 

 sible not to conclude, that there must have been a long interval 

 between Asoka and the independent Sah kings and an almost 

 immediate succession of the Sah kiugs by the Guptas."* 



In reply to this, I have only to re-quote in this place, my original 

 authority for an inference to a different effect, leaving my readers 

 to elect the author of the Bhilsa Topes to a higher position as a 

 palaeographer than Jas. Prinsep, if they so will it. The following 

 extracts from the J. A. S. B. were printed in my paper on the Sah 

 kings. t " The character [of the Sah inscription] is only one remove 

 from the Buddhist alphabet of Girndr." J * .* * " The Sanskrit 

 character of the third century B. C. differs only so much from the 

 original form [the Buddhist alphabet of the 5th century B. C] as 

 the habits of a class of writers distinct in religion and more refined 

 in language, might naturally introduce." § 



Prinsep goes on to say " The Asoka alphabet|| (the Sanskrit one) 

 agrees very closely with that of our Saurashtra coins, which may 

 thence be pronounced to be anterior to the Gupta series. The 

 Gujerat plates dated in the third century of the Samvat era [?], 

 differ but little from the Allahabad pillar or Samudra- Gupta inscrip- 

 tion, but that little is all in favour of their superior antiquity."^ 



I conclude that Major Cunningham does not wish to date the Sah 

 coins at any later epoch than the Sah inscription, as he must be 



* P. 148. f J. R. A. S. XII. 24. % J. A. S. B. VII. 337. 



§ J. A. S. B. V. 275. Prinsep, J. A. S. B. VII. 275. The words are as 

 follows: the Sanskrit character of the 3rd century B. C. &c. differs only so much 

 " from the original form as the habits of a class of writers distinct in religion and 

 more refined in language might naturally introduce." 



Major Cunningham himself undesignedly concedes much towards this argument in 

 the fact he notices of " the extremely rare use of compound letters" in the Bud- 

 dhist legends engraved on the Bhilsa Topes. He remarks " only three instances 

 occur throughout all these inscriptions ; and they are certainly exceptions to the 

 common practice of Asoka's age, which adhered to the simplest Pali forms." 

 B. F. 268. 



|j It may be necessary to remind my readers that Asoka's name occurs in the 

 Sah inscription — this is the sole instance of its use in inscriptions. In his own 

 edicts he calls himself Devdnampya JPiyadasi, J. A. S. B. VII. 219 et seq. 



% Ibid, 276. 



