Art. V.—On the Rock Inscriptions of Kapur di Giri, Dhauli, and Girnar

Extract

The circumstances under which the remarkable inscription at Shah baz gheri or Kapur di Giri was discovered and transcribed by Mr. Masson, and decyphered by Mr. Dowson and Mr. Norris have been already detailed in a preceding Journal, vol. VIII, and it was then shown by a comparison of one of the divisions of the inscription with a similar division of those of Girnar and Dhauli, that they were all three substantially the same. The interest excited by this identification, and the possibility that some of the difficulties in the reading and translation of the earlier known inscriptions might be explained by the one more recently discovered, naturally recommended the prosecution of the inquiry and the complete collation of the several inscriptions. In the absence of any person more competent to accomplish so desirable an object I consented to undertake the task, and now lay before the Society the result of the comparison. It has not, I fear, added materially to our knowledge of the purport of these curious documents, but it leaves no doubt of the identity iu all material respects of the records preserved by the rocks of Guzerat, Cuttack, and Afghanistan.