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JUNE, 1887.]
passage as under worship now, were the same as those sold by the Mauryas. As, however, the revered Dr. Böhtlingk seems, if I understand him right, to favour that view in his Ein Versuch sur Beilegung, &c., I must give my reasons. They are these:-If the images, Siva, Skanda, and Visakha, were the same as those sold or "introduced" by the Mauryas, Patanjali would have indicated the same by some expression in the sentence Mauryair hiranyarthibhir, &c. The pronoun tasu in the next sentence, and' étáḥ in the one that follows it, will both have to be taken as referring to the same images. The same images cannot be spoken of as 'those' and 'these'; and to remove this inconsistency, we shall have to understand tasu as equivalent to tadáním so as to bring out the sense, that the rule about the dropping of ka was not applicable to these images at the time when they were sold or introduced by the Mauryas. But the demonstrative tad cannot by itself be so understood. According to Dr. Böhtlingk's way of looking at the matter, the passage has no grammatical point at all; the object of Patanjali being simply to cast a reflection on the Mauryas. This is not proper. Patanjali always makes out a grammatical point; and the point made out according to the view under discussion, as it appeared to me when I rejected it, is, that, in framing the names of idols under worship, we have not to look to the fact that they were sold before they were used for worship. But this point is almost evident, and is more appropriately made out, if necessary, by speaking of ordinary manufacturers as selling images which are afterwards used for
ASNI INSCRIPTION OF MAHIPALA.
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worship. The point, according to the view which I have accepted, is this;-panya has two senses, "something that has the possibility of being sold," and "something that is exposed for sale." The idols, Siva, &c.. which are under worship now possess the possibility of being sold, because idols under worship were sold by the Mauryas. But, though they possess the possibility of being sold, they are not actually exposed for sale. Panini's rule applies to idols of the latter description, and
This inscription, which is now published for the first time, was brought to my notice in August, 1886, by Mr. F. S. Growse, B.C.S. It is on one of the faces of a square sandstone pillar, measuring about 1' 8" square and 7' 9" long, that was found at Asni, a village about ten miles north of Fatehpur-Haswa, the chief town of the Fatehpur-Haswa District in the North-West Provinces. About eighteen or nineteen years ago, the pillar was brought in
not of the former. The distinction between the two senses of the word panya and its grammatical effect, cannot be illustrated, except by taking instances of the sale of idols under actual worship; and since ordinary manufacturers do not do that, Patanjali, knowing that the Mauryas had done it, makes use of the fact for the purposes of his grammatical exposition. The word étaḥ is not superfluous in my translation, as Dr. Böhtlingk thinks; for, it is used for pointing out the idols under discussion, Śiva, Skanda, Visakha, as contrasted with the idols sold by the Mauryas. All this I have explained at length in my second Reply to Dr. Peterson on the Date of Patanjali; and especially in my Sanskrit comment on the passage. It will be seen that, even according to my view the passage shows that Patanjali flourished but a short time after the Mauryas. For he remembers rather an unimportant incident with regard to the princes of that dynasty; and the word samprati, as I have already observed, indicates 'present time' as contrasted, not with a remote past time-adyatvé is the word which has that sense-but with a past time fairly near to the person who uses the word.
SANSKRIT AND OLD-KANARESE INSCRIPTIONS. BY J. F. FLEET, Bo.C.S., M.E.A.S., C.I.E. No. 170.-ASNI INSCRIPTION OF MAHIPALA.-(VIKRAMA)-SAMVAT 974.
to Fatehpur-Haswa by Mr. J. W. Power, B.C.S., then Collector of the District; and was placed in the garden of a private house ordinarily occupied by the Collector. Recently, Mr. Growse has had it finished off with a capital and pedesial; and has set it up in the Municipal garden attached to the Town Hall, so as to protect it from injury by further removal. I edit the inscription from ink-impressions and a photograph, sent to me by Mr. Growse.
