July, 1873.] ON COPYING INSCRIPTIONS. 183 ON COPYING INSCRIPTIONS. E two great desiderata in Indian Archae¬ ology at the present time are—a connected history of Indian art, and a collection of the Inscriptions. So far as Architecture at least is concerned, the want, we believe, would soon be supplied by the only writer able to do full justice to the subject—to interpret correctly its history and development, and to read therein the record of the past—were the materials only available. But they are not« nor is there much promise at present of their soon being forthcoming. To the inscriptions, on the other hand, the attention of many labourers has been directed. Our knowledge of the early history of India is so extremely meagre, that those interested in it long since naturally gave their attention to the numerous existing records of this kind. Thus Lassen wrote fully twenty years ago,—“the only hope perhaps of replacing the want of documents and annals ... and of filling up the many lacunse in the history centres in the In¬ scriptions. Their high importance as a supple¬ ment to the history imperfectly transmitted to us, and as a means of fixing the eras of dynasties, was recognized and called attention to by him who laid the foundation of the knowledge of most branches of Indian Antiquities,—namely, C o 1 e- brooke, .... who himself also edited and translated several inscriptions with his usual accuracy.* The learned Society, one of 'whose greatest ornaments he was, possesses in its Transactions most of the communications of this sortf ; and several of its members have by these acquired imperishable merit in the investigation of Indian Antiquities. It is no slight to others if here I only specialize James Prinsep, who not only himself deciphered the oldest forms of writing, and edited more inscriptions than any one else, but who knew also how to incite his fellows to search for and communicate them.” After enumerating some of the more remarkable, he justly adds, “as to the inscriptions collected, we are indebted for the knowledge and preservation of these ancient monuments of the country not so much to the care of Go-
- See Asiat. Res. vol. IX. p. 398, or Misc. Essays, vol. II.
p. 238. f In the Asiat. Res. vol. I. printed at Calcutta in 1788, five inscriptions are given, three of them translated by C. Wil¬ kins ; and the first mention is made of the Asoka inscrip¬ tions, at p. 379. £ Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde, vol. II. pp. 42 to 45. vernment as to the zeal and care of iso¬ lated individuals; who have hence ac¬ quired the merit of securing them from the de¬ struction to •which so many others have fallen a prey, and have thus contributed as far as they •were able to their preservation. In order to utilize those collected for the purposes of science, it would be necessary that a scholar qualified by requisite knowledge should arrange and edit them, which however could only be accomplished were the Indian Government to allow a subsidy for the labour. That, however, will probably remain a piuni desiderium, though such an obligation is much more incumbent on it than editing the cuneiform inscriptions was on the French Government, or the collecting and elaborating the Greek and Latin inscrip¬ tions on the Prussian Academy of Sciences.”2 The list of workers in this department is thus briefly summarized by Mr. A. C. Burnell§ :— “ The Portuguese at Goa took some inscriptions on stone to their native country, but Sir Chas . Wilkins was the first to explain one (at Cintra), about the end of the last century. The earlier volumes of the Asiatic Researches contain several interpreted by Wilkins, Jones, and Colebrooke, and in the later volumes H. H. W i 1 8 o n contributed many valuable ar¬ ticles on this subject. The Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal about forty years ago made (by the articles by J. Prinsep, Dr. Mill, and others) immense progress, and of later years the same Journal, the Journals of the lloyal Asiatic Society and of the Bombay Society, have often done much to advance the study of the Sanskrit inscriptions of India, and the names of Mr. Norris, Professor Dowson, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Bay ley, Dr. BhauDiiji, and Babu Rajendralal M i 11 r a need scarcely be mentioned as most diligent and suc¬ cessful decipherers. In the South of India an immense number of inscriptions exist in the so- called Dravidian languages, many of which are not inferior in antiquity or interest to most of the Sanskrit and Prakrit inscriptions of the §§ A few suggestions as to the best way of making and utilizing copies of Indian Inscriptions. By A. C. Burnell, M.C.S., M.R.A.S., Madras, 1870. The contents of this well-considcred little pamphlet are so deserving of atten¬ tion, and of being made more widely known than they as yet seem to be, that the greater portion of it is now repro¬ duced in these columns.
