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302
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[Vol. XIX.
In the present inscription the first word is obscuro. If, as can be judged from the rabbing. the inscription is complete, it consists of not less than four, nor more than five, letters, the last letter of the word (u) should therefore be the ending of the construct case dual. The root is, it must be admitted, unknown and improbable; but with the less improbable alternatives for the first letter, the words other, who give nothing more satisfactory. If the third letter should be regarded as a mutilated web or us, though for this there seems no good ground, roots known from the Arabic ( wir, unus) would result, but the interpretation would remain obscure.
Both the direction of writing and the forms of the letters point to an early date for the inscription-(though the M is not quite the earliest type), say to the earlier part of the period of the kings of Sab's; if the transition from the style of kings of Sab's to that of kings of Sab's and Dhu Raidan be correctly dated as 118 B.C., this inscription must be earlier, perhaps considerably earlier than 118 B.C.
The direction of the writing from left to right occurs in the alternato lines of tho relatively rare and early boustrophedon inscriptions, see, e.g., C.1.8. 363, 367, 371, 379, 381, 383, 386, 387. 412, 413, 416, 417, 418, 421, 423, 439, 459 (from Abyssinia), 487, 491. Other examples of this direction maintained in two consecutive lines are much rarer : Bee C.1.8. 474 in two lines.
To judge from the form of M, this also is probably to be read from left to right, though the M, round as here, does very occasionally occur in inscriptions read in the usual manner from right to left (see C.1.8. 393).
Transliterating into Arabic letters read from right to left, this inscription reads :
فرعبصبعي
The line immediately to the left of the first M is presumably the line of division; the similar line to the left of this looks most like & second line of division ; but since two such lines together are most improbable, the line must rather be the remainder of a letter, -of what is not closr.
The first word is obscure and perhaps incomplete; the second seems to be a proper namo having the form of a participle of the causative conjugation (Ar. IV) without nunation.
The inscription belongs to much the same period as A, of an early, but not of the earliest (note the angular top of the H, and the bottom of the 8; see C. I. 8., 379) period. [G. Buchanan Gray].'”
No. 66.-AN UNPUBLISHED GRANT OF DHRUVASENA I.
MADHO SABUP VATs, M.A. This paper relates to two copper plates which on cleaning have been found to constitute a new Vala bhi grant. They were handed over by Dr. 8. K. Belvalkar of the Doocan College, Poona, some ten years ago to Professor D. R. Bhandarkar, the then Superintendent, Aroh wological Survey, Western Circle.
The grant is inscribed on the inner side of two copper-plates, each having two holes for keeping them together by means of rings, now missing. The size of the plates is 11" x 7" and the thicken is . Each plate is broken into two large and several small pieces.
The letters are cut deeply. As to orthography, the use of the jihvamaliya in line 19 and of the upadlmaniya in 11. 8, 11 and 14 and the change of the visarga into 6 before alabil (23) may be noticed.
