170 Report of the Archeological Survey. [No. 3, 
or ‘the canopy stone,’ which would seem to show that the inscribed 
block had formerly been covered over by some kind of canopy, or 
perhaps only by an umbrella, as the name imports. There are a 
number of squared stones lying about close to the rock, as well as se- 
veral fragments of octagonal pillars and half pillars or pilasters, which | 
are hollowed out or fluted on the shorter faces, after the common 
fashion of the pillars of Buddhist railings. There is also a large 
carved stone, 7 feet long, 14 foot broad, and 1 foot in height, which 
from its upper mouldings I judged to have formed the entrance sae 
to some kind of open porch in front of the inscription stone. 
189. When found by Mr. Forrest early in 1860 the letters of the 
inscription were hardly visible, the whole surface bemg encrusted with 
the dark moss of ages; but on removing this black film the surface 
became nearly as white as marble. At first sight the inscription looks 
as if it was imperfect in many places, but this is owing to the engrav- 
er having purposely left all the cracked and rougher portions uninscrib- 
ed. On comparing the different edicts with those of the Kapurdagiri, 
Junagiri and Dhouli versions, I find the Khalsi text to be in a more 
perfect state than any one of them, and more especially in that part of 
the 13th Edict which contains the names of the five Greek Kings, 
Antiochus, Ptolemy, Antigonus, Magas, and Alexander. The Khalsi 
text agrees with that of Dhouli in rejecting the use of the letter r, 
for which / is everywhere substituted. But the greatest variation is in 
the use of the palatal sibilant s, 4, which has not been found in any 
other inscription of this early date. This letter occurs in the word 
Pdsanda, which curiously enough is spelt sometimes with one s, and 
sometimes with the other, even in the same edict. As the proper 
spelling of this word is Pashanda, it seems almost certain that the 
people of India Proper did not possess the letter sh in the time of Asoka, 
190. I made a complete impression of the whole of this important: 
inscription. I also copied the whole of the inscription on the left side 
by eye, as well as most of the more obscure parts in the front inscrip- 
tion. I have since compared the entire text with those of the other 
rock tablets, and I am now engaged in making a reduced copy of this 
valuable record for early publication. I propose, however, first to 
compare it with the Kapuwrdagirt version in the Arian characters. 
With good copies of all the different texts before them, the scholars 

