Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/256

^12 ANCIENT RELIGION OF THE inscription of this sort at Brambanan, upon a stone more than six feet long, in the form of a tomb- stone ; in 1815, L found, myself, another of ex- actly the same description, and a third of smaller size was discovered in the same year by Dr Tytler. Besides these, smaller inscriptions, consisting of a few words, or at most of a few lines, have been found, chiefly at Singhasari, and commonly on the stone images of the principal objects of worship. I have one in brass in my own possession, on the back of a figure of Buddha, found near Bramba- nan. No translations of any of these inscriptions have been effected, but I think some important in- ferences may be drawn from their bare existence, surrounded even among the same ruins by inscrip- tions in the ancient Javanese ; and these are, that a few genuine Hindus of Western India were among the founders of the principal temples, but that they were not the most numerous body of the priest- hood of the time ; that Sanskrit was not the usual language consecrated to religion ; and that, as we see the Dewanagari and Javanese characters exist- ing, separate and distinct, at the same moment, the one was not derived from the other. Of inscriptions of the second class, a great number are found in every part of the island where other Hindu ruins exist, from Pakalongan to Ma- lang. They are particularly abundant in the eastern portion of the island, and, as already men-