North Indian Inscriptions

ADDITONS AND CORRECTIONS
1962

  2. Recent acquisitions of the Bhārat Kalā Bhavan, Banaras, ^[1] include some sculptures from Bhārhut having inscriptions which hitherto were known only from the eye-copies published by General Cunningham is StBh, as “from Uchahara” (these have been reproduced in this volume). At the request of Dr. G. S. Gai, Ph.D., Governm. Epigraphist for Idian Ootacamund, Shri Rai Krishnadasa, Hony, Director of Bhārat Kalā Bhavan, recently sent us estampages of five inscriptions (A 36, A 47, A 48, A 104 and B 62) for being included in the Corpus. See additional Plate No. XLVIII. We have to thank both the gentlemen for their kind help. Dr. Gai also contacted Professor K. D. Bajpai of Sagar University, Madhya Pradesh, who some time ago paid a visit to Bhārhut and inspected the archaeological collection of the Ramvan Museum (near Satna, some miles distant from Bhārhut). He found there about two dozen sculptures from Bhārhut, some with, fragmentary inscriptions which he read as follows :

1. Utama……………………….. 2. ………………………tasa dānaṁ 3. ……………………………. thabho dānaṁ

Professor Bajpai states in a paper on ‘New Bharhut Sculptures’, to be published shortly, that he came across Bhārhut railing pillars “in the locality” (Ramvan or Satna?). One (No. 3 in this paper) is a fragmentary pillar with an inscription. It is our No. A 7. Another pillar (No. 2 in the

paper) has the inscription No. A 26. Both inscriptions were known through Cunningham’s eye- copies as on “pillars in Batanmāra”. Prof. Bajpai gas been kind enough to send us impressions of A 7 and A 26, and a copy of the manuscript of his paper. For this generosity we are very grateful to him. Prof. Bajpai’s descriptions of the third pillar, “representing the complete figure of a standing Yakshi”, applies exactly to the Yakshi on a “pillar at Batanmāra” reproduced in Cunningham’s StBh., Pl. XXI, and in Coomaraswamy’s book on Bhārhut, l.c. Fig. 47. Prof. Bajpai found an inscription on the pillar “which can be read as Soriya thabho dānaṁ”. But if the two Yakshis are identical, the reading should be a little different, see below, postscript on A 124. Cunningham, StBh., Pl. LV, gives seven inscriptions as found on “pillar at Batanmāra”. His Nos. 90-96 correspond to our Nos. A 124, A 54, B 35, A 43, B 59, A 26 and A 7. Of these, B 35 and B 59 are in the Indian Museum. Calcutta; A 7, A 26, and probably A 124 are on the pillars discovered by Prof. Bajpai. It therefore remains for the future to find out whereabouts of only A 43 and A 54, thabho dānaṁ, read by Prof. Bajpai on a sculpture, possibly constitutes the end of the inscription A 54. Luckily the whereabouts of the inscriptions “from Uchahara” (Cunningham, StBh., Pl. LVI, 61-67), which correspond to our Nos. A 47, A 36, A 48, A 104, A 112, B 62, and A 4, are today perfectly clear; A 4 is in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, A 112 in the Freer Gallery, U.S.A., and the rest in the Bhārat Kalā Bhavan in Banaras.[2]    We now add special postscripts to the inscriptions mentioned above. A 7 (809); Plate XLVIII    On a fragmentary railing pillar No. 3 recovered by Prof. K.D. Bajpai, who reads the inscription as Karahakaṭasa Utara gadhikasa thabo dānaṁ and explains Utara (Uttara) as “personal name of the donor, who was a dealer in perfumes” (gendhika). The impression of the inscription now available seems indeed to give ga instead of gi,[3] whereas i is clearly to be read in Cunningham’s eye-copy on which every one had to rely until now. No wonder that, in Prof. Bajpai’s words, “the second word has been read by all scholars as ‘utaragidhikas;”. The present editors regarded Utara-gidhika (Uttar-gṛdhyaka?) as a name derived from the constellation Uttara like Uttara-dāsaka, Uttara-datta, Uttara-mittā and similar names mentioned by Hilka. Even if-gadhika is the correct reading, it should be interpreted in the same way, i. e., as the personal name Utara-gadhika (Uttara-gandhika). It would be necessary to have Utarasa to enable us to separate Utara from gadhikasa, cf. A 55 etc. The sa of Karahakaṭasa in the reading of Prof. Bajpai is missing in the impression and has been added in mistake. [1] Cf. Indian Archaeology, A review, ed. By A. Ghosh, 1959-60, p. 82, and ibid. 1960-61, New Delhi 1961, p. 74. Plate 1.XXXVII. [2]The bulk of the Bhārhut sculptures is in the Indian Museum, Calcutta. A good number is nowadays also kept in (1) the Allahabad Municipal Museum, Allahabad, (2) the Bhārat Kalā Bhavan, Banaras. and (3) the Ramvan Museum, District Satna; a few pieces are kept in (4) the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, as well as (3) the Freer Gallery, U.S.A. A number of sculptures is apparently still the possession of private people in places not far from the present village of Bhārhut. [3] This is not absolutely certain as traces of an i-hock seem to come out if the rubbing is held against light. The letters on the whole are not very clear in this impression.

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