INDIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 367 



title-deeds of grants and endowments made by kings and chiefs to 

 temples and religious communities, some "being on rocks, some on 

 the pillars and walls of temples, and others engraved on plates of 

 copper held together by rings to which is attached the seal of the 

 reigning dynasty. In these inscriptions lies the hope of filling up 

 the many lacunas in Indian history, and we find that Sir Charles 

 Wilkins, General John Carnac, Sir John Shore, and others who 

 rallied round Warren Hastings and Sir William Jones, to form the 

 Asiatic Society of Bengal ninety years ago, fully recognised this, 

 and at once began to collect and investigate the contents of 

 inscriptions.* Colonel Colin Mackenzie during the first years of the 

 century did much to collect inscriptions, especially in Southern 

 India, where they are very numerous, and is said to have prepared 

 copies of no less than 8,076. .Francis Buchanan (Hamilton) also 

 collected many inscriptions. During his long residence in India, 

 Sir Walter Elliot spared no pains in collecting impressions of copper 

 plate grants, and transcriptions of stone tablet inscriptions, and by 

 means of them was able to establish the chronology of the great 

 Chalukya dynasty of the Kanarese and Maratha countries, which 

 flourished from the 5th to the 12tb Centuries. Others, such as 

 Tod, Prinsep, Le Grand Jacob, Bhau Daji, and Cunningham showed 

 like activity in collecting, but as Lassen truly remarksf it was the 

 zeal and thoughtfulness of individuals, rather than the care of the 

 Government, to which the knowledge and preservation of these 

 ancient monuments of the country were due. 



However, in 1851 the Bombay Cave Temple Commission, 

 appointed to carry out the object of the despatches of the Court of 

 Directors,! obtained the appointment of Lieut. Brett to copy and 

 take impressions of the inscriptions ; and reduced lithographs and 

 translations were published by the Rev. Dr. Stevenson in the 

 Journal of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 

 Early in 1856, the same Commission recommended the publication 

 under Government, of fac-similes or copies with decipherments and 



* Pali, Sanskrit, and old Canarese inscriptions from the Bombay Presidency, and 

 parts of the Madras Presidency and Maisur. By J. F. Fleet and Jas. Burgess, 

 London (Eyre and Spottiswoode). 1878. 



f Alterthumskunde, II., 42. 



t No. 15 of 29th May 1844, No. 1, 27th January 1847, No. 24, 29th September 

 1847, and No. 13 of 4th May 1853, and Resolution of Bombay Government of 

 31st July 1848. (No. 2805.) 



