ISO On some Bactro-Buddhist Belies from JRdwal Pindi. [No. 2, 
The first word of the record appears to be distinct enough ; the 
syllables are s i, ri and e = s'irie, the singular dative in Pali of s'ri; 
the meaning being, “ For the sake of prosperity.” The first and the 
third syllables are undoubted, the second may be read ti, vi, or ri at 
option, the t, v and r being, as aforesaid, liable to be confounded.* It 
has been taken for ri because no meaning can be got with vi or ti. 
Besides, in Oriental writings the word s'ri is always reckoned to be an 
appropriate beginning for a grave document, as it is supposed to be 
highly conducive to prosperity. The second word is Bhagava. When 
1 first met it in the Wardak monument, I had some doubts about my 
reading, and I adopted it only on the analogy of the Burmese vocative 
of Bhagavan, but in Major Kittoe’s collection of unpublished inscrip¬ 
tions, there is a Pali record in the Lat character, which has the word 
very distinctly in two places, and there seems to be no reason to object 
to it any longer. 
The syllable immediately succeeding Bhagava is of a very doubt¬ 
ful appearance. It makes the nearest approach to a bo. In Mr. 
Thomas’s platef the lapidary b is written thus S, and if the vowel 
mark for o be put about its middle it would be changed to a shape, 
which would be very nearly that of the letter in the inscription. The 
vowel cannot be u , as that letter in the Kapur-di-giri record is given 
in a different way with a horizotal stroke at foot. The dha after 
it is undoubted, and then the first syllable is repeated. The pra 
which follows next is well formed and not liable to be questioned, 
but what the next syllable is, is quite uncertain. Taking it at a 
random for a jna, the whole word becomes Bodhabopr/ijna. Placed 
immediately after Bhagava, the word is expected to be the name of 
the saint whose death the record has to commemorate, but placed 
between two such pure Sanskrit terms as Boddha and prajna, it is 
not easy to account for bo, one feels disposed therefore to suppose 
that either it is a misscript for hi which is a very appropriate Sans- 
krita expletive meaning “ certainty” and corresponding to the Eng¬ 
lish adjunct di or dis; or the jna is a mislection of something else 
which with bopra. made a proper noun, but what that is cannot now 
be guessed. If the syllable bo be taken for te, no advance whatever is 
* The facsimile prepared from a sealing-wax impression is not correct here. 
The original gold leaf has ra and not ri. 
t Prinsep’s Indian Antiquities, p. 1G6, 
