JULY, 1873.]

ON COPYING INSCRIPTIONS.

sion of cults is of the greatest interest, and shows that modern Hinduism has been chiefly developed

185

in South India.”

a perfect mould of the inscription. Paper large enough to cover most inscriptions is easily to be had ; in the case of very large ones, it is neces

Mr. Burnell's suggestions as to methods he thus states:—“What yet remains to be done, is to make available to the scientific public copies of all existing inscriptions; and this involves a uniform system of preparing such copies. Scattered as inscriptions are over the whole of India, it is at present chimerical to attempt to study them; to say nothing of the want of time for such work experienced by all students re sident there. To make and collect copies is however a mechanical task, which may be easily

sary to lap over the edges of the sheets and apply a little gum and water or weak paste to them, and also to prevent those sheets first applied from falling, and thus spoiling the rest, a few poles or sticks leaning against the corners in large, or the gum used for joining, in small inscriptions, will be found enough. When properly dried, copies made in this way (in French, “estampages'), may be rolled up or put in blank books without the slightest injury, and even will stand damp.”

done; and now that a little interest is awakened

“The second process is applicable to inscrip

regarding the ancient civilization of the many races of India, a few suggestions as to the best way of doing so may not be thought inoppor tune, especially by those who see that a work of this kind if not soon done, can perhaps never be done at all. Inscriptions are daily being destroyed during repairs of temples, and by the country people taking stones from ruins. Cop per Šāšanas find their way to the melting-pot. The first question is—How to make the copies? Many ways have been tried; rubbings by heel ball on paper, impressions on linen made by a pad daubed with printing-ink; sketch-drawings, photographs, &c. &c. Considerable experience” and a number of experiments have convinced

tions on plates of metal; I devised it several years ago and never fonnd it fail. The plate or

me that all these methods are defective, and

that only two ways are really trustworthy; one applicable to inscriptions on stone, and the other to those on metal.

“Firstly for inscriptions on stone, I recom mend impressions on stout unsized paper, such as is now manufactured at Paris for the use of

Egyptologists. The inscription must first of all be quite cleared of dust or mud or other obstructions, and this may be best done by a hard clothes-brush. The paper is then to be rapidly but uniformly wetted in a tub of water, and applied to the inscription and forced into the irregularities by repeated and forcible strokes with a hard brush—an ordinary clothes brush is as good as any for the purpose. If the stone be clear of dust the paper adheres, and

when dry falls off, forming (if at all well done)

plates should be carefully cleaned with a dry brush, and the letters occasionally must be cleared out with a blunt graver. The native process of rubbing the plates with acid, and then putting them in the fire to loosen the incrustations,

should never be resorted to, as it invariably in jures them fatally. From the cleaned plate an impression (reverse) is to be next taken by passing a roller charged with ink over the plate,

and then printing from it as from an ordinary copper-plate. From this impression another may be taken by means of an ordinary copper plate press; and with a little practice a perfect facsimile may be thus obtained, the letters being white, and the rest of the plate appearing a dark grey. Photozincography and many other me thods exist by which “estampages' and facsi miles made by the last process may be multiplied to any extent.” The processes here suggested are most useful, and in experienced hands they yield very satisfactory” results. Copying by the eye, where the character and language are not familiar, and any of the letters indistinct, is most tedious and unsatisfactory: and as it is desirable to be able

to copy inscriptions when no printing-press and few appliances are available,_some other methods may be noticed:– 1. When the surface of the stone or plate, between the letters, is perfectly smooth, as in the case of marble or polished granite, a rub

lished. The great objection to photography as a means of

paper used, and the difficulty (or impossibility) of managing th; Hºnºr the lithographs of the Wallapakam Šá. Śamas, from copies made by the second process above, with .

reproducing inscriptions consists in the imperfections of the

the facsimiles that appear elsewhere in this journal.

• Cf. also the remarks of Prinsep and Mill, and recently

of Dr. Bhàu Dâji, as to the great alterations required by improved transcripts of inscriptions long known and pub