No. 55,— 1904.] 
PROCEEDINGS. 
165 
5. The Chairman : Does any Member wish to say anything on 
the subject ? 
Mr. Harward: I am anxious to know whether there is any trace in 
Ceylon of the Ndgari character for any other purposes except the 
inscriptions on coins. 
Mr. W. F. GuNAWARDHANA Stated that there were inscriptions in 
Asoha character, which is the oldest form of Ndgari, 
Mr. Harward: The question is, how is it that we have the modern 
Ndgari character on the coins alone and not on anything else ? 
Mr. W. F. Gun A WARD HAN A: Because coins in Ceylon were made in 
imitation of those in India. 
Mr, C. M. Fernando said that it was curious that they should have 
no inscriptions of that date — say between 1,000 and 1,500 — in th^Ndgari 
character. These coins were traced to the time of Parakrama Bahu, and 
contained inscriptions in the Ndgari character.-"* They had from India 
an earlier coin which Professor Rhys Davids had identified as the 
Iraha coin. That coin was dated about the sixth or seventh century of 
the Christian era. It was more generally considered that the letters 
on this coin were not Iralm^ but ought to be read from right to left. 
The early coinage of Ceylon deserved a much fuller treatment than it 
had hitherto received. 
This ended the discussion on this Paper. 
5. Mr. Harward then proceeded to read a few extracts from the 
following Paper by Mr. Donald W. Ferguson (now of Croydon, 
England) : — 
* More than one inscription in Mediasval Devanagari character has been 
found in Ceylon. For the finest see EpigrapUa Zeylanica:' Vol. I, 
Part I., No. 1.— H. C. P. B. 
