98 



Remarks on the Bhilsa Topes. 



[No. 11, NEW SEEIES. 



power at a mathematical demonstration ; and his weakness in a 

 pure theory or hypothesis. Locke, on the contrary, had a bold, 

 high, and perpendicular forehead ; " causality" jutting out in two 

 decided lumps : he was a metaphysician. 



Mr. Prinsep looked with a longing eye at the very old lafh 

 characters ; how brilliant ! could any thing be made out from 

 them. It occurred to him that Buddha-Gaya votive earthen- 

 vessels bore on them short inscriptions, in the common dialect, with 

 the word dor Ddnam, that is, gift. Very numerous, and equally brief 

 inscriptions at Bhilsa, Sanchi and other places, in the lafh letter, 

 uniformly ended with like letters ; ergo this word must be Ddnam. 

 In another foot-note he considered the inscription to be either 

 funereal, or votive. He chose the wrong sense ; for the word in reality 

 is ' lay am, 1 death, or loss. In many letters Mr. Prinsep was un- 

 questionably right; but in many more wrong. Dr. Babington, 

 under guidance of Boriah, Col. McKenzie's Brahman, used the 

 Grantha character as a key to the inscriptions at Mamallapuram. 

 Most eagerly was this reading accepted at Calcutta. But it is a 

 false guide. I found that a letter like the one for m was k, and 

 another with equally slight variation was d, of this fact there could 

 be no doubt ; a Canarese Brahman (who had never seen Ma- 

 mallapuram,) so read the letters. Add, the above mistake of read- 

 ing d for I, n for y, ddnam for lay am ; and nothing more would be 

 requisite (though more there is) to falsify all Mr. Prinsep's decy- 

 pherings. I have no doubt of their incorrectness : his alphabet was 

 useless, when applied to the Amardvati letters ; though these are 

 identical with those in inscriptions at Bhilsa, and other places. 



Major Cunningham has, in the heading of a chapter, more dd- 

 nams. Mr. Prinsep, from meeting with the Bauddha's formula 

 Ye dhamma, &c. -concluded that the language was that of Magadha 

 or the Pali. He had a Cingalese servant with him, who gave him 

 the formula with its sense ; and this man acquired his unbounded 

 confidence. By means of wresting, twisting, altering, the lath 

 inscriptions were harmonized into a meaning ; and the result was 

 proclaimed in the journal, as might be expected, to be perfect 

 and final. One proof of Mr. Prinsep's bonhommie, recorded by 

 himself, is surprising ; there was one word, just the thing : only 



