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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
given to the donees had been seen, and was acknowledged to be correct by the minister or by the keeper of the records. This explanation is suggested by the position of dithan in our grant, where it occupies much the same place as the Vide or Visum in certain modern official documents. If drishtam-ditham were to be taken as a mangala, as might be supposed on account of its position in the two Vakåta ka grants, it would be difficult to say how it came to be used in that sense.
II.-THE PRAŠASTI OF THE TEMPLE OF LAKKHA MANDAL AT MADHÂ,
IN JAUNSAR BAWAR,
By G. BÜHLER, Ph.D., LL.D., C.I.E. The subjoined edition of the Prasasti of the temple of Lakkha Maņdal at Madha in the Jaunsår Bå war district on the Upper Jamnå, has been prepared according to an impression supplied by Dr. J. Burgess. The inscription seems to be incised with great skill and neatness and to be in an almost perfect state of preservation. The letters are very closely allied to the Brahma aksharas of the Horiuzi palm-leaves and to the characters of Dr. Bhagvånlal's Nepal inscriptions Nos. 9-15, as well as of those of Kamavana and Jhalråpâțan. With the latter it shares one striking peculiarity-the superscribed and often highly ornamental kánás and mátrás. Our document is, however, not quite regular in this respect. Prishthamátrás and 4-strokes, marked by a horizontal line, occur likewise. Archaic is the form of ta which consists of a semi-circle, inclining towards the right or placed horizontally with the round back upwards. In two cases, 1. 13 Bhatta-Kshemasiva and 1. 14 Bhatta-Skanda, the top of the upper ta is flattened. The subscribed palatal ña has also an archaic shape, differing only by the curves in the left-hand vertical from the form of the Gupta inscriptions. The older form of ya consisting of a loop and two verticals occurs 1. 6 and 11, in yena.
The language is good and pure Sanskrit, offering only a few irregularities in the spelling, which, however, are very common in the older inscriptions. Instead of the anusvåra we havo invariably na before sa, and also before sa, with one exception, where the dental na stands. For kritavân the inscription has, 1. 4, kritarán; for kritás, 1. 7, kritab; and for simha, 1. 1 and 5, singha. No distinction is made between va and ba, a certain indication that then as now the letter pa was always pronounced ba in Northern India. Above the inscription there are in the centre some irregular letters of later date which seem to read Sri-Hattadhisoarebhyach. Further towards the right stand five indistinct aksharas of the same alphabet in which the inscription is written, perhaps ndratana. syah and finally nearly in the corner above a diagram [rá?] jasrísádhukenah l.
As regards the contents of the inscription, it offers (verse 22) a so-called Prasasti, -a eulogy or panegyrie, composed by Bhatta Vasudeva, son of Bhatta Skanda and grandson of Bhatta Kshemaśiva, and incised in the stone (verse 23) by the mason Íśvaranaga, son of Nagadatta.
The stone is now in the modern temple of Lakkha Mandal, where it has recently been placed for safe custody, another wborter and almost obliterated inscription is built into a wall. The Tahsildar of Kalsi brought both to my notice.-J B.
. Ind. Ant., vol. IX, pp. 163 seqq. ; vol. X, p. 34; and vol. V, p. 180. Compare also Anecdota Oconiensia, vol. I, part 3, p 72, note 2.
