No. 2. 'Estimate for building two additional Rooms, Back Stairs, and Closet; also removing the Staircase, &c. and fixing a new Staircase in the Western Room, as per Plan No. 2. Building two Rooms, &c. as particularized in N. B. The above includes changing the old roof of Staircase Room. 771 0 4 11,661 13 6 Resolved,―That the Society approve of Col. M'LEOD's Plan No. 1, and sanction the sum estimated for the construction of four additional rooms, and repairs of the premises, and that the Secretary be requested to communicate the resolution of the meeting to the Builders, with orders to commence the work, with as little delay as possible. X Meteorological Register, kept at the Assay Office, for the Month of February, 1839. Forenoon, 10 A. M. 158 ART. VII.-Meteorological Register. Differential thermometer. -oaaiu mu「རནེར་ྲཔྤཏྟརཉྩ ཙ meter. By Dewpoint. By Hair Hy grometer. By Wetbulb hazy.cir.str. ,920 ,901177,9 0. do. ,912 929 75,7 45) 0. do. ,931 ,908 78,0 1,6 95 9,0, 10,01 W do. ,895 ,867 79,7 11,6 11,5 13 JOURNAL OF THE ASIATIC SOCIETY. No. 87.-MARCH, 1839. ART. I.-Notice of an Inscription on a Slab discovered in February, 1838, by Capt. T. S. BURT, Bengal Engineers, in Bundelkhund, near Chhatarpur.-By the Editors. Captain BURT will have imputed, to the right causes, (Mr. PRINSEP's illness, and absence) the delay, with which we notice the impression of the above inscription, so obligingly forwarded by him. This communication, has added to the obligations which antiquarian science owes to him. The legend of the inscription is now presented to our readers with a translation-a relevant extract from Captain BURT's Journal-some explanatory notes, and a prosodial key to the inscribed verses, or rather Poem. A facsimile of the inscription is not added, because the character resembles the specimen published in our number for April, 1837; and Captain BURT describes it as No. 3, Allahabad pillar. This slab, it will be seen, was found detached at one of several temples at Khajrao, nine coss from Chhatarpur, which is on the high road connecting Saugar and Hamirpur. Khajrao is described by Captain BURT as near Rajgarhy, which we assume to be the Rajgarh of the maps-a fortified town on the right bank of the Cane river S. E. from Chhatarpur. The place abounds with remains of temples, statuary, and monuments of ancient times. The slab was found in the temple dedicated to "LALAJEE." This name, (unknown to the Sanscrit theogonies) is probably the appellation locally current of some divinity whose alias we cannot conjecture. It may however be assumed, that * Captain BURT's letter covering the inscription has been mislaid. We hope we have not taken a liberty in making an extract from a Journal of his Travels, in the hands of Thacker & Co., for the press.-EDS. Y the slab does not belong to this edifice; and that that, celebrated in the polished verses now presented, has yielded to the mouldering hand of time. We may also assume, that its site, was the consecrated spot, described by Captain BURT, and that it gives us the genealogy of Rajas who formerly ruled in that part of the country. We learn that Raja BANGA erected a lofty temple for the reception of an emerald emblem of SIVA, and a stone image of the god. On the death of this Raja, seemingly by voluntary immersion in the confluence of the Yamuna and Ganga, his territory was administered by the priest YASONHARA,-perhaps, during the minority of his heir JAYA VARMA DEVA. The original inscription, of sixty stanzas, was engraved and put up in 1019 Sambat, or 962 A. D.—that is about 877 years ago. From the two last, or supplementary, stanzas we learn, that it was engraved by order of Raja JAYA VARMA DEVA in "irregular" letters. He afterwards had it re-engraved in clear character: then because effaced, he again, at the distance of fifty-four years, had the poem reengraved in the Kakuda character on the slab, from which Captain BURT has taken a faithful impression. It bears the date Friday, Vaisakh 3d, Sudi Sambat 1173, a. d. 1016. The poet was SRI RAM, who has not failed to give his own genealogy, and the caligraphist was "that GAUD'A' KAYASTHA." The pious BANGA appears to have been of the Lunar race. The pedigree given by the slab is this SRIHARSA,+KUNKATI his wife of the Gangetic race. YASO-DHARMA DEVA+NARMA DEVA his wife. I BANGA appears to have been succeeded by JAYA VARMA DEVA, who may have been his son. In the 12th vol. of the Asiatic Researches there is copy of an imperfect inscription taken from a slab translated by Capt. PRICE, who found it near Mow, a town ten miles from Chhatarpur. A place of that name, in a North Westerly direction, appears on the map near the left bank of the Dassaun river. The name of JAYA VARMA DEVA is in the royal genealogy recorded on this slab; of which the date is effaced. This genealogy has also its VIJAYA; but it cannot be identified with that of BANGA. It appears however that when ANANTA, the Brahmin minister of his father and grandfather, drowned himself in the Yamuna, some other (probably a Brahmin) was appointed to the administration by JAYA VARMA,—because, as Capt. PRICE infers from words used in the inscription, he had abandoned worldly concerns. * In the Khajrao slab it is not stated that JAYA VARMA DEVA was the son of BANGA, but we learn that the priest YASONDHARA administered after the pious suicide of BANGA. These circumstances afford some grounds, though weak, to identity the JAYA VARMA DEVA of both slabs. In case of identity, we may suppose that the two genealogies exhibit distinct branches of one family, and that JAYA Varma Deva succeeded collaterally. No doubt local inquiry would fling light on the history of the Kings or Chieftains here recorded. The poet elevates BANGA into a great monarch and conqueror. Kings of Oude and even Ceylon attend to do him homage, and his captives are the wives of the kings of Andra, Radha, and Anga. All this of course is the exaggeration and fancy of the poet. But the 19th stanza seems however to indicate the actual conquest by VIJAYA of southern territory. BANGA's piety was not limited to the erection of the shrine. He also built mansions for seven Brahmins who officiated at the temple, which he endowed with lands. "Two yavas at Sri Brahma kalpa; one in the vicinity. Kalpa gram, on the south of the snowy mountains, was another." This obscure sloka introduces a new land measure. The yava, or barley corn, is the lowest linear measure, and suits, neither royal munificence, nor priestly expectation. We have Kalpi on the right bank of the Yamuna; but unless to fill up the verse it would hardly be described as south of the snowy mountains. Is any Sri Brahma kalpa known in the vicinity? We should be much gratified if this, and other points connected with this inscription receive the attention of Captain BURT, or any other intelligent correspondent who may have the opportunity of local inquiry. We will not dismiss the temple, without noticing XIççHA "the carpenter," the Christopher Wren who built the "cloud-capt" fabric. No Indian name approaching to this is now known. Was he foreigner? * In the 9th verse of the Mow slab the name of JAYA VARMA's father is incomplete. But BANGA would not suit the metre, and would make an incongruous compound. |