No. 63.— 1910.] 
TANTRI-MALAI. 
77 
and possibly a few more letters now obliterated. The earlier 
part of it is beyond me ; but from the latter half it is plain 
that the cave was once the abode of a lady named Naga, who 
had devoted herself to religion. 
The last inscription of approximately this period is cut in 
the rock above a small natural cistern about 150 yards north- 
north-east of Upasika Naga's cave. 
Ba ta su ma na ha ta la cha da 
Judging by the shapes of the sa, ma, and ha, this belongs 
to about the time of Christ. It reads " Ba ta su ma na ha 
ta la cha da,'' and appears to be complete. Bata Sumana 
may be taken equally to mean " Brother Sumana," or to be 
a single name ; but what his talachada may have been I am 
not able to explain ; tala could possibly be read tale, which 
means the blade of any sharp instrument, and the record may 
be simply that Bata Sumana cut his name. 
Beside these three definite date-fixing records, there are 
several other remnants of the early monastery. 
Probably the first monk or devotee who settled there lived 
in the fine natural cave, afterwards the cell of Upasika Naga ; 
but as the community grew, further accommodation had to be 
provided, and perhaps the cave where the chert flakes were 
found, and two others near to it, were then occupied. All 
three have drip ledges cut above their brows, but none bear 
inscriptions. 
I attribute to the same period a number of small stone 
buildings which occur almost at random on quite a number 
of the rocks. These are in most instances close to some 
natural cistern, which leads me to believe that they existed 
before the construction of the tank. There are about twelve 
of these buildings in all, each built of rough stone fragments 
which show no wedge marks and which seem to have been 
naturally fractured. I call them buildings, but as a fact 
they are no more than little rectangular platforms with no 
