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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1905.
nothing strange in finding in these symbols letters corresponding to the above words. inasmuch as these symbols have been, as we shall see, taken for those letters.
The coins containing the inscription negama' are, according to Sir A. Cunningham, anterior to the conquest of India by Alexander the Great, inasmuch as they are found to contain the very archaic forms of letters. Besides, the absence of medial vowels in the inscription of Ayodhya coins (figs. 11 and 12), and the insertion of initial vowels in the place of medial vowels in the inscriptions of Vassudeva coins (figs. 4, 27, group 3, Plate III.) are incontrovertible proofs regarding the priority of these coins to the time of Asoka, when medial vowels are found to have long been completely elaborated. Hence it must be admitted that coins with smooth surfaces or with hieroglypbics are far earlier than the 6th or 7th centuries B. C. Can it be doubted then that the description of the hieroglyphics in such Tantric texts as the Tripuropanishad, &o., is the reproduction of Tantrio tradition of bygone ages ?
Besides ancient coins, the walls of ancient temples, as well as stones lying in the vicinity of a tew temples in India, are also found to have hieroglyphio symbols chiselled on thein. Out of the carved and plain blocks of granite and sandstone found in the bed of a river in the vicinity of Suddyah, Upper Assam, a triangalar weather-worn block of granite is said to contain certain symbols engraved upon it. Regarding these symbols Major F. S. Hanny observes thus:
4 They inay, perhaps, have some meaning and give a clue to the era of the building. - one or two of the letter-like figures assimilate with some of the cbaracters of the ancient Devanagari Alphabet ; but the shaded figures are too deeply cut to suppose they are more than symbolical of a particular era and people."
An examination of theso symbols (as shown in Plate IV.) will, I am sure, establish the argument I lave been putting forward. They are no more than hieroglyphios intended to represent the several Tatvas of the Universe, corresponding to the several members of the human frame, and thereby form an outline of the picture of a god or goddess. The symbols, marked by me with numbers, may be arranged in the following order : 1. Head-dress.
16 & 17. Eyes. 2. Head.
18 & 19 (19 worn away). Ears. 3. Noge.
20 & 21. Hands. 4 & 5. Lips.
22 & 23. Trunk. (Våmapâráva left side 6 & 7. Arms.
and Daksbiņaparsva right side.) 8 & 9. Cheeks.
As the lungs are believed to be 10 & 11. Legs.
Visuddhichakra, seat of parifica12 & 13. Forehead when placed in
tion, the upper portions of the parallel lines.
figures representing them seem 14 & 15. Thighs.
to have been unshaded. Also those symbols which are carved in the foundation of the enclosure wall of the temple, and also on the elephant near the same river, and which Major F. S. Hanny thought to be typical of the mason or of the builders, are evidently the pictures of the "weapons" of the god. The symbols marked with Roman numbers in Plate IV. are, (I.) a chalcra, (II.) an arrow, (III.) a bow with an arrow, (IV.) another form of a bow with an arrow, (V.) a lotw bud, (VI, and VII.) some weapons, and' (VIII.) a shield or a square,
Regarding the antiquity of the temple rains in Assam, Captain E. Taite Dalton observes thus:21 -
"The Yogini Tantra, & work of high repate in Assam, as its contents are supposed to have been communicated by Siva to his consort Pârvatt, states, regarding the king Narake, that, though
14. B., VOL. XXIV.
