North Indian Inscriptions

PART A

A 41 (858)^[1] ; PLATE VII

EDITED by Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 141, No. 43, and Pl. LVI ; Hultzsch, ɀDMG., Vol. XL (1886). p. 74, No. 136, and Pl., and IA., Vol. XXI (1892), P. 237, No. 136; Barua- Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 26, No. 93.

TEXT:
bhadata-Samikasa Therāk[ū]ṭiyasa^[2] dānaṁ

TRANSLATION:
Gift of the reverend Samika (Svāmika),^[3] the inhabitant of Therākūṭa (Sthavirākūṭa).

   Hultzsch took Samika and Therākūṭa as names of two donors, and Lüders in his List was the first to explain the word Therākūṭiya as ‘inhabitant of Therākūṭa’. Lüders, how-ever, followed Hultzsch at that time, when taking Samika as the equivalent of Sk. Śyānaka, apparently regarding Samika as an error for Samaka recurring in A 66 in bhadata-Samaka. In A 6 where Samika is the name of a lay-donor Lüders explains it by Svāmika (as already List No. 244), and in view of the fact that there is no marked difference in naming laymen and Buddhist clergymen there is no reason why Svāmika should not be the name of a bhadanta. The explanation of Samika by Śamika (Barua-Sinha) needs no discussion.

A 42 (718); PLATE VII

   ON a pillar of the South-Eastern quadrant, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (P 15). Edited by Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 132, No. 7, and Pl. LIII; Hultzsch, ɀDMG., Vol. XL (1886), p. 63, No. 27, and Pl., and IA., Vol. XXI (1892), p. 229, No. 27; Ramaprasad Chandra, MASI., No. I (1919), p. 20, No. 12, and Pl. V; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 6 f., No. 8.

TEXT:

1 Dabhinkāya Mahamukhisa dhitu Badhika-
2 ya bhichhuniya dānaṁ

TRANSLATION:

The gift of the nun Badhikā (Baddhikā),^[4] the daughter of Mahamukhi (Mahāmukhin),^[5] the Dabhinikā (inhabitant of Darbhiṇa ?).

  Hultzsch’s suggestion accepted by Barua-Sinha that Badhikaya might be a clerical mistake for Bodhikaya is wrong. Badhikā is the female name corresponding to Badhaka occuring as the name of two different monks in the Sāñchī inscriptions, List Nos. 484 and 633. The Sanskrit equivalent of Mahamukhisa is hardly Mahāmukhyasya as assumed by Barua- Sinha. Female adjectives are frequently formed from names of places with the suffixikā. The name of the place must therefore be Dabhina, in Sanskrit perhaps Darbhiṇa, but not Darbha^[6] as stated by Barua-Sinha. A parallel place-name is Dharakina in the Sāñchī inscription, List No. 259.
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^[1] Lüders’ treatment of this inscription is missing.
^[2] The ū in the akshara kū is not quite distinct ; it could also be read u.
^[3] See classification I, 4, a 5 (Śaivite names).
^[4] See classification II, 2, b (names derived from mental disposition and temperament). We take Baddhikā characterising a female ‘bound to’ worldly desires.
^[5] See classification II, 1, a (names derived from parts of the body).
^[6] According to Barua-Sinha, in the Brahmāṇḍa-and a few other Purāṇas Darva or Darbha is mentioned as a country on the hills.