Page:Bulandshahr- Or, Sketches of an Indian District- Social, Historical and Architectural.djvu/58

 while the discovery of the antiquities above described clearly establishes the interesting fact that a little later, from about 400 to 800 A. D., there was a Buddhist community outside the Fort walls, occupying the site now known as the Moti Bágh. The only ancient inscriptions that have been found in the district are distinctly Brahmanical. The oldest is dated in the reign of Skanda Gupta, in the year 146, which—if the Saka era in intended—would correspond with 224 A. D. But this dynasty had an era of its own, which seems more likely to have been the one used, and an element of considerable uncertainty is thus introduced. For the commencement of the Gupta era is a very vexata quœstio among archæologists, being put by some so late as 319 A. D., by others at 190, and now by Gen. Cunningham at 167. A complete transcript and translation of the inscription, by Dr. Rájendralála Mitra, C. I. E., are given in Vol. XLIII of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. It is not in itself of great importance, being simply a provision on the part of a Bráhman, named Deva-vishņu, for the maintenance of an oil lamp, to burn in a temple of the Sun at Indra-pura. The copper-plate on which it is engraved was dug up at Indor, an artificial mound of great elevation and extent, a little off the high road from Anúpshahr to Aligarh, opposite the eighth mile-stone from the former town. As I have shewn at length in my "Mathurá," by an application of the rules laid down by the Prákrit grammarian Vararuchi, the Sanskrit Indra-pura, in the natural course of phonetic decay, must become Indor in the modern vernacular. Besides the inscription, a large number of coins, some of an older type than those of the Asoka period, together with beads, fragments of terra cotta, brass ornaments, toys and other trifles were found by Mr. Carlleyle, during his exploration of the mound. The most unimportant of them were presented to the Indian Museum; the remainder, it is presumed, are in General Cunningham's possession.

The next inscribed memorial is some centuries later in date, but from exposure to rough usage is in a far less perfect state of preservation and is for the most part illegible. It is an oblong block of stone, measuring 29 inches by 10 by 10, which I brought into the station from the well adjoining the tomb of Khwája Lál Barani, which lies across the Kálindi, and close by the side of the Shikárpur road, about half a mile due east of the town of Bulandshahr. There are two inscriptions, one opposite the other,