 Neither an archaeologist nor epigraphist, his training was as a statistician and he presumed that it was a Buddhist cave temple.He visited the site several times and made eye-copy (hand drawings) of the script panel he saw on the left and the right side of the wall.He then read a paper to the Bombay Literary Society in 1833 under the title, "Inscriptions of the Boodh caves near Joonur", later co-published with John Malcolm in 1837.