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SOURCES FOR HISTORY OF KHĀRAVELA
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hornets like to take liberty with perfect impunity and have added a few irregular marks. The result is that out of 17 lines, only the first 4 are completely readable. The 5th has about 13 syllables obliterated by natural decay, Half of the record of the 6th year (line 6) and the entire record of the 7th year (line 7) have disappeared. From the 8th upto the 15th lines, each one has got large gaps wrought by decay. The 16th and the 17th lines are comparatively well preserved except for the loss of 12 initial syllables. Visible signs of progressive decay, in recent times, are apparent from the fact that about four passages which were read by Dr. Bhagwanlal Indraji in 1866, could not be traced by K. P. Jayaswal in 1917.1 Irrespective of such big lacunae, there still remains enough to show that not only it is one of the oldest engraved documents that have come down to us, but has, actually, preserved events in a chronological order of an otherwise unknown monarch of ancient India, whose history is, in another sense, the history of India in the first Century B. C.
Size
In so far the size of the inscription is concerned, it covers an area of about 15 feet 1 inch by 5 feet 6 inches, say about 84 sq. ft., divided into 17 lines. Each line contains about 90 to 100 letters, and the letters vary from 34 inches to 4 inch in height.
System of Špacing
There is an elaborate system of spacing in this record. New paragraphs, after the record of each year, are indicated by a large space which could have accommodated three to four letters. Full-stops and lesser stops are represented by smaller spaces sufficient for about two letters. There
1. JBORS, III, 1917, p. 427.
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