182 On some Bactro-Buddh 1st Relics from Bdwal Bindi. [No. 2, 
the verb ; it is distinctly vikayati; vi prefix ti the conjugational termi¬ 
nation, and haya the root. In Wilson’s Dictionary, this root is said 
to have four meanings “ to move,” “ to worship,” “ to sound,” “ to be 
weary,” hut none of them seems to be appropriate. “ To move” 
might be used in the sense of “ to pass away.” But a Buddhist 
would not in a hurry say of his saint that “he passed away.” The 
more probable reading therefore appears to be viharati, a genuine 
Buddhist term for “ taking pleasure” or “ relaxation.” To do this, 
however, the ya must be assumed to be a miscript for ra. But whe¬ 
ther so assumed or not, the word must be taken as a metaphorical 
expression for death. 
My reading of the entire inscription according to the above ana¬ 
lyses would be 
sf 
II and its translation: “ In the first watch of 
the night, Bhagavan Bodhaboprajria or Bodhabopravva, the joyous, 
for the sake of prosperity, drinking of joy, and rising above his flock, 
took his relaxation.” 
One objection to this reading of the text, though not a serious 
one, is its style which is much more artistic and high flown than 
would be suited to a Bactro-Buddhist epitaph ; but if the value as¬ 
signed to the several letters composing it be admitted, the meaning 
cannot well be avoided. The only Arian records of any length that 
have yet been translated are the As'oka edicts of Kapur-di-giri and the 
Yase inscription from Wardak, and they are both, in nearly pure 
Pali. If they differ, the difference is due to their bearing a closer 
resemblance to the Sanskrit than to the Pali, and not to any deteri¬ 
oration from the Pali. Following the former, they retain the three 
sibilants and compound consonants with r, which are nowhere met 
with in the latter. The Arian legends on the bilingual Bactrian coins 
are likweise in Pali, and they fully justify the assumption that in the 
time of the Indo-Bactrian sovereigns the language of court and religion 
was the Pali, and since the inscription under notice is unmistakeably 
a Bactrian sepulchral record its language must be the same; which 
being conceded, the meaning I have given to it follows as a matter 
of course. I have found that it is possible by a segregation and 
rearrangement of the different syllables—the words being engraved 
continuously in the original and not separated—to form new words 
with different meanings, but as they could not be held together by 
any grammatical cement, I have not thought proper to advert to them 
