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first-born of Siva; and the i ingam is a sufficient testimony of 
Siva’s having presided in this ancient Hindoo temple. 
Mr. Goldingham does not attempt to deduce the eera of the 
fabrication of this wonderful structure; but a considerable light 
is thrown on the subject by Mr. Wilford, whose erudition has been 
conspicuously displayed in the transactions of the Asiatic Society. 
He has discovered some of the inscriptions in the caves at Salsette 
to be the pure Sanscrit dialect, and the characters, though un- 
couth and barbarous, of the same language; others again are en- 
graved in an ancient vernacular dialect, and in characters derived 
from the original, or primeval Sanscrit, since they are established 
on the same elements, although very different in form from those 
at present in use. The subject of these inscriptions would per- 
haps have been of little importance, had they not led to a very 
valuable discovery of ancient alphabets; which may hereafter 
facilitate the deciphering of other inscriptions of greater conse- 
quence. 
In the literature of India there is no legend more celebrated 
than the wars of the Kooroos and Pandoos, the sons of Detra- 
rashtra and Pandoo, for the dominion of Plindostan — a subject 
which has given birth to the Mahabarat, a poem that, among the 
Hindoos, has the credit of divine inspiration, and which Mr. 
Hastings has compared with the Iliad of Homer. 
Detrarashtra and Pandoo were the sons of Veectreetraveerga, 
who was succeeded in the empire by Pandoo in consequence of 
his elder brother being incapacitated by blindness. Detrarashtra 
is said to have had a hundred sons, of whom Doorgadun was the 
eldest, and in fact the representative of that branch oi the family 
