JOURNAL 
OF THE 
ASIATIC SOCIETY. 
No. III. 1861. 
A Donative Inscription of the Tenth Century ; the Sanskrit Original 
and its Substance in English : ivith Remarks on the Later Kings 
of Dhard in Mdlava. By Eitz-Edward Hall, Esquire, X). C. L. 
To our present stock of information respecting the rulers of Malava 
during the middle ages, the inscription now published furnishes, 
directly, nothing additional. At the same time, the researches which 
the record has suggested have discovered to me, that the conclusions, 
as regards those rulers, which have recently been put forth by the 
most highly accredited of living Indian archeologists, are, as a 
whole, very far from being reliable* 
* A note philological may seem to bo not exactly opportune here, if excursive 
beyond Oriental limits. But, again, outlie very score of irrelevance, it may 
detain the desultory glance of some who would instinctively treat in summary 
sort all aridity about the Kings of Dliara, unutterable of name, as they must bo 
to the uninitiated, and not at all calculated to verify the adage of ignotum pro 
mirifico. We , — by which is meant the members of our Society, — as persons 
who feel any interest in, or other than a perfunctory toleration of, the subjects of 
Asiatic languages, literatures, and antiquities, have dwindled to a most modest 
minority. And small is the blame; if, indeed, the idea of blame be not altoge- 
ther gratuitous. As for our noble English tongue, however, our pride in it is a 
common sentiment ; and indifference thereto is not to be anticipated. Leaving, 
then, for the public good, Sanskrit and all such repulsive mysteries a thousand 
leagues in the rear, I purpose to discuss the legitimacy of the much aggrieved 
quadrisyllable from which these observations took their departure. 
An impression has got abroad, not among the unthinking, but among those 
who at least ' tacitly claim to think, that there is a kind of linguistic high- 
treason in lending countenance to the word ‘ reliable’ and its conjugates ; as if, 
to entire satisfaction, they were demonstrated of kin to the “ socialless’.’ of 
Madame D’Arblay, and such like monsters, now happily extinct. Proof to this 
effect might be adduced in copious abundance : but the witnesses presently to 
be summoned will no doubt suffice. 
The late Mr. Do Quincey shall enjoy the distinction of appearing first. 
“ Alcibiades,” he says, “ was too unsteady and — according to Mr. Coleridge’s 
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