________________
124
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[APRIL, 1874.
Hemtabad, Ghoraghât, and Tajpoor, and probably at other points on the old lines of road. Relief works may be carried on none the worse if a few minutes of leisure are devoted to rubbing off an inscription on some forgotten building buried in the jungle; and we hope that these lines may attract the attention of some whose work during this famine year, takes them into the interesting field of research we have indicated.
E. VESEY WESTHACOTT,
Bengal Civil Service. 21st Feb. 1874.
existing at a height of 18 feet from the base is 48 feet, the height of the original structure would be 48+18, or 66 feet.
The entire work seems to have been carefully put together, and all the bricks specially moulded to suit the slope. In the first horizontal ring surrounding the hole there are eight bricks, as shown in sketch (Fig. 4), in width one foot, and depth six inches. The joints are all of mud, and are, as a rule, about an inch or more thick.
THE LANJÅDIBBA OR MOUND AT BHATTI.
PROL, REPALLI TALUQA. Of one of the curious mounds in the Krishna District noticed by the late Mr. Boswell (Ind. Ant. vol. I. p. 153), Mr. W. R. Norris, C.E., Assistant Engineer, sends the accompanying sketch with two letters, of which the following is the substance. As in so many other cases, "a great part of it" has been demolished for road metal.
The mound at Bhatt prol, commonly known as Lanjådibba, is a relic about which such information as is obtainable has been given by the lato Mr. Boswell. It stands on a small piece of high ground outside the village of Bhattiprol, two miles to the west of Vellatur on the Krishna, and is built entirely of large bricks made of clay and straw roughly mixed and well burnt. The dimen. Bions of these are about 1 foot 6 inches by 2 feet. The height of the present remains is about 14 feet in the highest place, and, owing to a great part of it having been demolished for road metal, the shape is very irregular, as may be seen from the sketch. In area it may be said to contain about 1,700 square yards, and it was, I think, originally of a circular form, judging from the shape of some of the bricks which have been found in it. On the top of the mound and in the centre of it is a circular hole 9 inches in diameter, which reaches from top to bottom.
No earthen bank exists around the "Lanjadibba," except that formed by the dust and refuse remaining after the several demolitions which have, from time to time, been made.
The whole structure is one solid mass of brickwork built up in regular courses six inches in depth.
The mound seems to have been originally of the form of a cone with side-slopes of one hori. zontal to two vertical. I was not able, during the short time of my visit, to make any extensive excavations to find out any part of the slopes which had not been damaged, but from measurements of several courses of brickwork I am satisfied that the slope was one to two. If I am right as to this, and as the diameter of the frustum at present
THE RÅMÅYANA OLDER THAN PATANJALI.
SiR-In my tractate on the Ramayana in reply to Professor Weber, published about the beginning of last year, I stated that the evidence which I had been able to find in the Great Commentary of Patanjali having a bearing upon the question of the antiquity of the R& maya na was of a very meagre character. I am now, however, in a position to refer to one passage in the Mahabhdshya which appears to me to finally settle the question. In commenting on Panini III. 1. 67, Patanjali cites the following line (p. 43, Banaras ed.):
एति जावन्तमानन्दो नरं वर्षशतादपि ॥ Now this line occurs in Valmiki's Ramdyana, whence it would seem to be quoted by Patan. jali. It may be seen at chapter 128 of the Yuddhakanda of the Ramayana in the Bombay edition (p. 238). In Gorresio's edition, too, the verse is to be found at chapter 110 of the same. kanda (vol. V. p. 566). In the Adhyatma Ramdyana also, the same verse occurs in the same context. It forms part of stanza 64 of the fourteenth sarga of the Yuddhak inda.
It is only fair to add that I am indebted to my friend Mr. Mahadeva Shastri Bopardikar, of the Elphinstone High School, for showing me the place where the verse occurs in the Adhydtma Ramdyana. With the knowledge thus obtained from him, it was of course easy for me to find the verse in Valmiki's works. It may be worth adding that the same verse is quoted in the Kuvalayananda (see p. 197, Bomb. lith. ed.), and the knowledge of its occurrence there also I owe to Mr. Mahadeva Shåstri.
I think that this passage must be taken to establish beyond the reach of controversy the priority in time of Valmiki's Ramayana over Patanjali's Mahabhashya. That there may have been additions and alterations in it is not denied; but of the existence of the main portion of the work we have now, I think, the strongest possible guarantee.
KASHINATH TRIMBAK TELANG. Bombay, 1st March 1874.
