130 An Essay on Early Relations [No. 37, 



gures are rather hastily stated to be those of Brahma, and Siva. 

 I doubt ; because I perceive certain attendant distinctive marks 

 to be wanting ; and counter distinctive marks to exist. The fi- 

 gure thought to be that of Siva has some letters evidently Deva- 

 nagari, of the middle age, but they are too imperfect to be read. , 

 There is also, in the second plate, after p. 54, a seated figure of 

 benign appearance, highly ornamented, and intimating rather a 

 historical than mythological personage, which has also a few De- 

 va-nagari letters near the top of the head. I read the first of the 

 Two words but with the exception of Ki at the end, there is 

 one compound, and one simple letter, that as yet 1 cannot, with 

 certainty, decypher. The sentence may be, Aji Jayaki, and the 

 meaning to (or in commemoration of) Aji Jay a ; but I am not 

 certain of this reading at present ; and will ground on it no 

 conclusion. It may be Aji Sakaki, to Aji Saka. 



The temples, sculptures, and emblems at SuAa, are of different 

 character ; more rude in design ; of less extent, and indicating tra- 

 ces of religion quite ferocious in character. A resemblance is in- 

 stituted by the author with the antiquities of Egypt. I think it fal- 

 lacious, and too hasty. A few indications are Hindu. But on the 

 back of one an inscription, better preserved thanihe rest, was found, 

 of which a fac-simile is given ; and others of the same kind were 

 afterwards discovered at Kediri. Now the fac-simile of the inscrip- 

 tion cut in relief, on the back of the statue, has in it, the Tamil cha- 

 racter for pa 7 with seeming variations of connected vowels, not less 

 than six times recurring. This particular character consisting of 

 three sides of a square (u) seems to have been of such extensive 

 usage in different languages, that nothing can be grounded thereon. 

 It occurs in the square Pali : and is found in some inscriptions in 

 Arabia, supposed, by some* to be Abyssinian, by others Phenician. 

 For the rest some of the other characters are analogous to the square 

 Pali ; and from that I conjecture it must have been a Pali inscrip- 

 tion. Connected with this plate there are others having fac-similes, of 

 which two give indications of similarity to Hindu languages. I can 

 decipher several of the letters without being able to read the whole : 

 another one is (I can unquestionably state), none other than the old 



* A number of the Bombay Oriental Spectator for 183G is my authority for thiar remark. 



