372 INDIAN AKCH^IOLOGICAL SURVEYS. 



pages) have been published, containing a large number of very im- 

 portant inscriptions for the early history of India, and translated 

 by such accomplished orientalists as Professors Gr. Biihler, LL.D., 

 CLE., of Vienna, F. Kielhorn, Ph.D., C.T.E., of Gottingen, Prof. 

 J. Eggeling, Ph.D., of Edinburgh, &c, whose names are a suffi- 

 cient guarantee for the authority of their versions and comments. 

 Facsimiles of the more important epigraphs are also issued in the 

 work, which, if it is continued, will form an important supplement to, 

 or rather a substitute for the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarwm. 



Among the more important inscriptions for the' early history of 

 India contained in this first volume of the " Epigraphia Indica," now 

 all but complete, are — the recently discovered twelfth edict of 

 Asoka from Shahbazgarhi ; an early Prakrit copper-plate grant of 

 the Pallava king Sivaskandavarman ; an inscription from Lakkha 

 Mandal in the Himalayas, of about the sixth century, containing the 

 genealogy of the early kings of Singhapura ; two long inscriptions 

 of the beginning of the ninth century from Baijnath in Kangra ; 

 eight from Kkajuraho, and other Chandella records ; the great 

 Siyadoni inscription discovered by Dr. Burgess ; a new record of 

 Toramana from the Panjab ; a large numbdr of short but important 

 Jaina inscriptions excavated from the Kankali Tila atMathura; 

 and numerous others of great historic interest. 



Another valuable aid in the elucidation of Indian history is 

 afforded by coins, which enable one to trace the chronology and 

 sequence of ancient dynasties. Much light has been thrown on this 

 branch of antiquarian knowledge by the researches of Sir Walter 

 Elliot, who many years ago supplied a review on the coins of Southern 

 India. * In regard to the coins of Northern India, the labours of 

 James Prinsep, Wilson, Cunningham, and Edward Thomas have 

 contributed valuable information ; and Mr. Thomas's re-issue of 

 Marsden's " Numismata Orientalia " has been the means of bringing 

 out some important papers on Indian coinage, chief among which 

 may be mentioned Part I., published by Mr. Thomas himself in 

 1874, on ancient Indian weights and the origin of a currency in 

 India: one (Vol. in., Part I.) by Lieutenant-General Sir Arthur P. 

 Phayre, G.C.M.G., on the " Coins of Arakan, of Pegu, and of 

 Burma," and another (Vol. III., Part II.) by Sir Walter Elliot on the 

 " Coins of Southern India." 



* Under the head of Numismatic Gleanings, in the " Madras Journal," XIX., p. 220, 

 and XX., p. 75. 



