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AUGUST, 1877.]
THE STORY OF KHAMBA AND THOIBI.
219
the 26th year of the Kali-yaga, 3076 B.C. It is known to be a fact, and is not a mere hypothesis, that when this era is used the hundreds are generally omitted. The chronological dif- ficulties involved in these inscriptions seem, therefore, almost to defy solution: the order in which the kings, whose names are mentioned, succeeded one another is uncertain : the era may commence either in October 312 B.c. or in March 5076 B.C.; and the century of the era is never expressed. It has occurred to me that the phrase asya purvayam, which is of such very frequent occurrence, and has never been satisfactorily explained, may possibly refer to this suppression of the first figures of the date.
No. 6 is from a broken Buddhist rail found at the same place as No. 2. The front is carved with a single female figure, unusually well executed, and at the back were three bas. reliefs, the lowest of which has been lost. The inscription is a single line between the upper and middle groups, and, as it ends with the word dánam, apparently records only the donor's name, though what the name is I cannot exactly determine.
No. 7 is from the base of a seated Buddha of very early character, with dra pery falling over the body in a multiplicity of small folds. I recovered it from the bed of the Jamunå, where it was being used by the dhobis as a washingstone. The letters are so worn that the only words I am able to decipher are Daya-dharmma and Buddha in the first line, and at the end of the second sarvva and again Buddha.
No. 8 is from the base of a small seated figure with a group below it as in No.5. It was found at the Kankáli tila. Babu Rajendralála Mitra reads it thus:
Siddhajivikasya datta-bhikshusya vihárasya, and translates, “Of the monastery of Dattabhiksha, who had accomplished the object of existence." I should prefer to render, “May it prosper! The gift of Jivika, a mendicant ; for the monastery."
No. 9 is from the base of a very large seated figure carved in red sandstone, of which nothing but the feet remain. It begins Varsha-mdse 2 divas 6,"On the sixth day of the second month of the rains." The remainder is too much defaced for me to make out.
No. 10 is from below a small seated nude figure, carved in white stone, a material which ordinarily indicates & more modern date. The inscription is in three portions, and gives the Samvat year in Nagari figures as 1134. It was found at the Kankäli tila, which would thus seem to have been popularly frequented as a religious site for a period extending continuously over more than a thousand years. Either the Jains succeeded the Buddhists, in the same way as Protestants have taken the place of Catholics in our English cathedrals, or the two rival sects may have existed together, like Greek and Latin Christians in the holy places at Jerusalem.
No. 11, under the feet of a large seated Bud. dha in red sandstone, reads thus :Mahárdjasya Devaputrasya Hüvishkasya rajya
sam 50 He. 3 di. 2.
It is valuable as an undoubted early example of the same symbol for 50, as is seen in No. 5.
All these readings are tentative and imperfect. Even so they supply matter for interesting speculation. But if, as I hope, they are supplemented and corrected, much more will, no doubt, be.elicited from them.
Mathurd, February 2, 1877.
THE STORY OF KHAMBA AND THOIB: A MANIPURI TALE.
TRANSLATED BY G. H. DAMANT, OFFG. POLITICAL AGENT, MANIPUR. In the country of Manipur thove is a village Hauram Ningai, fled to a village called Moirang, called Mayâng Imphal, where there was a king where the king, Songlel Lalthâba, succoured called Yai Thongnál. He had three sons, the him, and he married a wife there and begot eldest called Hauram Halba, the second Hatram Pachelba, who begot Purelba, who slew five Ningai, and the youngest Hauram Tol. When tigers in Tarbang. their father died the three brothers quarrelled as Songlel LÂlthâba, the king of Moirang, beto which should be king; but the youngest got Kekhoi Lalthâba, who had two sons, Járagained the throne, and the second brother, kong Yamba and Chingkhutol Haiba; the
• See Ind. Ant. vol. V. p. 28.-ED.
