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222
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
partly altogether illegible, but, as will be seen from my transcript of the text, the greater portion of the inscription is fairly well preserved, and everything of importance may be read with certainty. The size of the letters is between and 3" The characters are Nagari of about the 17th century A.D. The language is Samskrit, and the inscription is in verse. As regards orthography, the letter b is throughout denoted by the sign for o; the dental sibilant is several times used instead of the palatal; and the vowel ri is employed instead of ri in tritaya, line 5.
The inscription opens with a verse invoking the blessing of Ganapati; after that it has twelve verses, numbered 1-12; and it breaks off, at the end of line 14, in the third Pada of another verse which would have been verse 13. Verse 1 describes the origin of the solar race, and tells that from Mandhâtsi, a prince of that race, sprang the Maurya family. Verse 2 then relates how Soma, i.e., the god Siva, left his home on the mountain Kailasa and came for the welfare of the people to settle in the country of Surashtra; and verse 3 states that here, in Surashtra, there is the city of Valabhi, the capital of the Mauryas, the Brahman citizens of which enjoy all the blessings of life through the favour of the Mauryas. Verses 4-13 then record the names of a series of princes or cbiefs, the first of whom is stated to have been born in the Maurya family, and each of whom has a verse, eulogizing his valour, allotted to him. This list, for it is nothing more, is as follows:
1. The illustrious Kikata, born in the Maurya family (v. 4). 2. After him came the illustrious Takshaka (v. 5). 3. After him, Bhima (v. 6). 4. Sarvasura (v.7). 5. After him came the prince Govindaraja (v. 8). 6. After him, the prince Sâdh vasika (v. 9). 7. The prince Jhañjha (v. 10). 8. From him was born the prince Deva hastin (v. 11). 9. From him, the prince Muñja (v. 12). 10. From him, the prince Padmakara (v. 13).
B.-This inscription contains fragments of 16 lines of writing, found on a stone which apparently measures about 3' 3' broad by 1'8" high, and the inscribed surface of which is greatly damaged. The size of the letters is between and 1". The characters are the same as those of the inscription A. The language is Samskrit, and the inscription is throughout in verse.
Though, owing to the damaged state of the stone, I am unable to furnish a text of this inscription, I feel no hesitation in saying that we have here the continuation of the preceding inscription A. Here, too, the verses have numbers appended to them, and the first number which is preserved is 14, and occurs towards the end of line 3. This verse 14, in the Mandakrântâ metre, must have commenced about 13" from the commencement of line 1, where verse 13 would have ended, on a part of the stone which is broken away. Comparing the end of the inscription A, we see that that inscription ends in the third pada of a Vasantatilakà verse which would have been verse 13, and that 19 syllables are wanted to complete that verse. Now 19 syllables would in the present inscription have taken up a space of exactiy 1s“, and, moreover, the aksharas preserved at the commencement of line 1 of B undowbtedly do belong to a Vasantati
