________________ 376 Homage to Vaisali level, noticed a few short records on the shaft in the so-called shellcharacters. Excavations were also made by Dr. Bloch in 1903, to ascertain if any inscription existed but nothing was found. The whole surface of the pillar is however, disfigured up to a height of about 15 ft. with numerous rude scribblings by modern visitors most of which are either in English or in Nagari - some of the latter consisting of two or more lines but none apparently more than two or three hundred years old. The earliest of the English records read "G. H. Barlow, 1780" and "Reuben Burrow 1792". Rudely delineated human and animal figures and symbols such as scales, wheels, nandipadas, etc. are also engraved. 00920...
