The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s2.113

v2.c16.s2.113

**Age of the caves :—**Of all questions concerning Indian history dates are the most puzzling. Rarely are they recorded in the literature of the people, and tradition is at fault at almost every step. As a general rule it is necessary, therefore, to receive deductions on the subject with some reservation—for it has often happened that what has appeared very satisfactorily established by one set of data, has been entirely upset by another. If it is, however, impossible to fix precise dates in all cases, sufficient materials are not wanting to settle certain limits regarding [ 40 ] many. Such I believe is the case with several of the caves of Udayagiri, and one at least of Khaṇḍagiri. The Pāli character with which they are inscribed, leaves no room for doubt that they must have been excavated at an earlier date than the second century before Christ, for it is all but positively certain that that character had in the second century commenced to change, and was greatly modified in the first century before Christ ; and looking to the subject of the inscriptions recorded in that character on the caves, it is impossible to suspect a forgery, or a love for old customs, or affection for the antique, such as leads to the adoption of the old English character for inscriptions of the present century.