giving the names of Antiochus, Ptolemy, Antigonus, Magas and Alexander.

INSCRIPTION ON SOUTH FACE OF ROCK

A. Cunningham, del.

Photozin vgraphed at the Surveyor Generals Office Calcutta

Plate XLI

show that the inscribed block had formerly been covered over by some kind of canopy, or perhaps only by an umbrella, as the name imports. There are a number of squared stones lying about close to the rock, as well as several fragments of octagonal pillars and half pillars or pilasters, which are hollowed out or fluted on the shorter faces, after the common fashion of the pillars of Buddhist railings. There is also a large carved stone, 7 feet long, 14 foot broad, and 1 foot in height, which from its upper mouldings I judged to have formed the entrance step to some kind of open porch in front of the inscription stone.

When found by Mr. Forrest early in 1860 the letters of the inscription were hardly visible, the whole surface being encrusted with the dark moss of ages; but on removing this black film the surface becomes nearly as white as marble. At first sight the inscription looks as if it was imperfect in many places, but this is owing to the engraver having purposely left all the cracked and rougher portions uninscribed. On comparing the different edicts with those of the Kapurdagiri, Junagiri, and Dhauli versions, I find the Khâlsi text to be in a more perfect state than any one of them, and more specially in that part of the 13th edict which contains the names of the five Greek Kings,-Antiochus, Ptolemy, Antigonus, Magas, and Alexander.* The Khâlsi text agrees with that Dhauli in rejecting the use of the letter r, for which is everywhere substituted. But the greatest variation is in the use of the palatal sibilant s, which has not been found in any other inscription of this early date. This letter occurs in the word Pásanda, which, curiously enough, is spelt sometimes with one 8, and sometimes with the other, even in the same edict. As the proper spelling of this word is Páshanda, it seems almost certain that the people of India Proper did not possess the letter sh in the time of Asoka.

I made a complete impression of the whole of this important inscription. I also copied the whole of the inscription on the left side by eye, as well as most of the more obscure parts in the front inscription. I have since compared the entire text with those of the other rock tablets, and I am now engaged in making a reduced copy of this valuable record for early publication. I propose, however, first,

See Plate No. XLI. for this portion of the Khâlsi inscription.

to compare it with the Kapurdagari version in the Arian characters. With good copies of all the different texts before them, the scholars of Europe will be able to give a more satisfactory interpretation of Asoka's edicts than has hitherto been made, even with the aid of all the learning of Birnouf and Wilson.

IV. MADAWAR, OR MADIPUR.

From Srughna the Chinese pilgrim proceeded to Mo-tipu-lo, or Madipur, to the east of the Ganges, a distance of 800 li, or 133 miles. Madipur has been identified by M. St. Martin with Mandawar, a large old town in Western Rohilkhund near Bijnor. I had made the same identification myself before reading M. St. Martin's remarks, and I am now able to confirm it by a personal examination of the locality. The actual distance from Paota on the Jumna to Mandawar via Haridwar, is not more than 110 miles by the present roads; but as it would have been considerably more by the old Native tracks leading from village to village, the distance recorded by Hwen Thsang is most probably not far from the truth, more especially when we remember that he paid a visit to Ma-yu-lo, or Mayurapura, now Myapoor, near Hardwâr at the head of the Ganges Canal. But the identity of the site of Madáwar with Madipur is not dependent on this one distance alone, as will be seen from the subsequent course of the pilgrim, which most fully confirms the position already derived from his previous route.

The name of the town is written with the Madáwar with the cerebral d, and without the nasal. In our maps it is spelt Mundore and Mundâwar. According to Johari Lal, Chaodri and Kanungo of the place, Madáwar was a deserted site in Samvat 1171, or A. D. 1114, when his ancestor Dwarka Dás, an Agarwala Baniya, accompanied by Katór Mall, came from Morari in the Mirat District, and occupied the old mound. The present town of Madawar contains 7,000 inhabitants, and is rather more than three-quarters of a mile in length by half a mile in breadth. But the old mound which represents the former town is not more than half a mile square. It has an average height of 10 feet above the rest of the town, and it abounds with large bricks, a certain sign of antiquity. In the middle of the mound there is a ruined fort, 300 feet square, with an elevation of 6 or 7 feet above the rest of the