58 Notes on two Inscriptions at Khunniara. [No. 1. 



Major Cunningham interprets as an abbreviation of the syllable 

 " om," The purport of both inscriptions is therefore nearly identical. 



" The garden of Krishuayasas," to which in the second inscrip- 

 tion some wag has apparently added the epithet "medangisya" 

 "corpulent," from 1R[ " med" fat, and ^np "anga" a body. The 

 subject matter therefore deserves no further notice, save as regards 

 the etymology of the proper name, which being compounded of ?js^ 

 Krishna and *r?^ yasas " glory," and bearing in composition the 

 meaning of " glory of Krishna" would seem to indicate the admission 

 of Krishna into the Hindu Pantheon at the period (a very early one 

 as we shall see presently) when the inscription was cut. 



If however this be eventually established, it by no means follows 

 that the name was applied to the same deity as at present, still less 

 that he was worshipped in the same manner. 



Leaving, however, the matter of the inscription, the employment 

 of two alphabets, and the two dialects which the diverse inflexions 

 point out, is a curious fact. Perhaps it may not be too much to 

 infer that at the date of the inscription, the Jullunder Doab was 

 intermediate between the territories to which each alphabet and 

 each dialect was peculiar. 



With respect to the date of the inscription, the form of the Indian 

 letters had already lead me to assign them roughly to the first cen- 

 tury A. D., on shewing them, however, to Major A. Cunningham, he 

 kindly pointed out that the foot strokes of the Arian letters, ally 

 them to those on the coins of " Pakores," and he therefore would 

 place them more accurately in the first half of the 2nd century 

 A. D. at the earliest. 



Some other alphabetical peculiarities remain to be noticed. The 

 most important of these, is the distinct use of the "anuswara" over 

 the second letter of the Arian inscription, to represent the "n" of 

 the Indian one, in the name " Krishna." Some versions of the 

 name on the coins of Amyntos and Menander had already led 

 Major Cunningham to suspect the employment of the "anuswara" 

 to represent nasal sounds in the Arian alphabet, it is now beyond 

 doubt. 



The first letter of the Indian inscription seems also to shew the 

 expression used for the vowel " u" in composition which during the 



