A Buddhist inscription in Swat

In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, (1901), pp. 575-576

Preview

PDF, English Download (1MB) | Terms of use Download (1MB)

Abstract

Dear Professor Rhys Davids,- In the last number of the Journal (pp. 291 ff.) Mr. E. J. Rapson has published the impressions of some inscriptions collected by Captain A. H. McMahon in Swat and the adjacent country. Among these there is one (No. 5) from a rock at Shakori, which, as recognized by Mr. Rapson, is written in Brahmi characters. Mr. Rapson states that "nearly every aksara can be read with more or less certainty," and he has succeeded in deciphering the words sa[m*] skara and niruddhyate; "but," he adds, "all attempts to give an intelligible translation of the whole, on this hypothesis, have hitherto been in vain, and Dr. Stein was of opinion that it was neither Sanskrit nor Prakrit." I consider the task of deciphering this inscription not quite as hopeless as Mr. Rapson and Dr. Stein seem to think.