Art. XIII.—On a Passage in an ancient Inscription at Sanchi near Bhilsa, proving the Proprietary Right in the Soil to be in the Subject and not in the Prince

Extract

In a paper of mine published in the 4th and 6th numbers of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, on Land Tenures in Dakhun (Deccan), I endeavoured to prove, and I believe successfully, from the authority of the Mahratta princes themselves, that the proprietary right in the soil in Dakhun was vested in the subject, and not in the prince, and I expressed my belief that such was the case all over India, and had been so from antiquity. It was therefore with no ordinary gratification, that I found a confirmation of my opinion in an inscription on the colonnade of a Buddhist tope or chaitya, at Sanchi, near Bhilsa in Bhopal, recorded in the 6th volume of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, p. 456., and the translation of which, from the ancient Deva Nagari character, we owe to the indefatigable zeal, the singular ingenuity, and the varied knowledge of the lamented Mr. James Prinsep.