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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XIV.
Sinoe some, four villages give the olne for identification, we may take it that Nagapapuri was situated somewhere at 20° 51' N. and 78° 44' E.
No. 7.—THE ARA INSCRIPTION OF KANISHKA II: THE YEAR 41.
BY STEN KONOW. This inscription was discovered in an ancient well in a nala known as Ara, two miles from Bāgnilāb, and was presented to the Lahore Museum by Dr. M. A. (now Sir Aurel) Stein. Mr. R. D. Banerji, to whom we owe this information, did not mention where Bāgailab is situated. Dr. Fleet therefore made inquiries through Dr. Spooner, and "it would seem that the place is the Chah Bagh Nilab of maps, about ten miles south-south-west from Attock, and apparontly on the south bank of the Indus at a part where the river, baving made a sharp bend about eight miles below Attock, runs to the west for some ten miles : the latitude and longitude appear to be 53° 46' and 72° 12'."
According to Mr. Banerji," the inscription is on a small piece of stone, measuring 2 ft. 8 ins. by 9 ins., and consists of six lines. The surface of the stone is extremely rough and uneven. The mason has not taken the trouble of planing the surface."
The inscription was first edited by Mr. Banerji, and then by Professor Lüders. Some valuable critical remarks were made by Dr. Fleet. The inscription ie of considerable interest. and, at the instance of Dr. Fleet, I have therefore asked Mr. H. Hargreaves, Superintendent of the Archeological Survey in the Panjab, to examine the stone closely. This he has very kindly done, and sunt me a series of valuable remarks by his assistant Mr. Y. R. Gupte, together with new estampages and some photographs. I have given a preliminary report of the results obtained from these new materials in a paper on the Indo-Scythians, and I now publish the inscription with a plate prepared from the new estampages.
The characters are Kharðshthi of the Kushana period. With regard to individual letters we may note that the e-mitra bas been added at the bottom of the akshara in devaputrasa, 1. 1, and in every initiale. The same is the case in the damaged letter at the end of 1.3, which Professor Lüders reads ro, but which I read de. The jhe of Vajhoshka, 1.2, seems to be quite certain. The compound letter which I read shk with Professor Müders has been transli. terated shp by Mr. Banerji and Dr. Fleet and Mr. Gupte agrees with them. I think, however, that we must read shk. In the first place, as painted out by Professor Låders, the compound shk has exactly the same shape in the Zeda inscription. It is quite true that it is different 'in Kanishkasa, 1. , and no doubt every reoord should, as pointed out by Dr. Fleet, primarily be judged separately on its own merits. This does not, however, imply that we should not take other facts than the men shape of the individual letters into consideration. It is a wellknown fact that the masons who executed the insoriptions were not always or even usnally literate persons. We know from an inscription published by Mr. Pargiter that it was often done in such a way that the insoription was first drawn up with ink, and then executed by the engraver or the mason. This prooedure partly accounts for the fact that the same letter often takes diferent shapes in the same inscription. As pointed out by Professor Lüders, the
1 Ind. Ant., 1908, pp. 58 1.
* Mitaungnbyrishin der K. Prewar. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1912, pp. 824 f., translated Ind. antie 1918. Pp. 132 tt. ... JR48., 1918, pp. 97 f.
Stowng herichte der K. Pronas. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1916, PP. 787 . Arosa logical Survey of India, Anaual Report, 1910-11, pp. 78 .
