North Indian Inscriptions

PART A

TEXT :

1 Baha[ḍa]to Ja[hira]natuno^[1] Isi-^[2]
2 rakhitaputasa Anaṁdasa thabho

TRANSLATION:

  The pillar (is the gift of) Anaṁda (Ānanda)^[3], the son of Isirakhita (Ṛishirakshita)^[4], the grandson of Jahira (?)^[5] from Bahaḍa (?).

With Bahaḍato compare Vedisāto in No. A 31. Barua-Sinha proposed to correct the first three words to Bahaḍagojaṭirasa dānaṁ, but the reading given above is absolutely certain as far as natuno is concerned. The names of the place and of the grandfather of the donor are not quite reliable, but the geographical name Bahaḍagojaṭira may be cancelled.

A 51 (797)l PLATE VIII

ON a pillar of the North-Eastern quadrant, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (P 19). Edited by Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 138, No. 85, and Pl. LV; Hultzsch, ɀDMG., (1886) Vol. XL, p. 70, No. 95, and Pl., and IA., Vol. XXI (1892), p. 235, No. 95; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 15, No. 39.

TEXT:

1 aya-Chulasa sutaṁtikasa Bhogavaḍha-^[6]
2 niyasa dānaṁ

TRANSLATION:

The gift of the venerable Chula (Kshudra),^[7] the student of the Sūtrāntas,^[8] the Bhogavaḍhaniya (inhabitant of Bhogavardhana).

A 52 (764); PLATE XXIV

ON a pillar of the South-Western quadrant. Original lost. Edited by Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 135, No. 53, and Pl. LIV; Hultzsch, ɀDMG., Vol. XL (1886), p. 59, and IA., Vol. XXI (1892), p. 225 (mentions only the name Kosabeyekā); Barua-Sinha, BI (1926), p. 12, No. 25.

TEXT :

1 Kosabeyekaya bhikhuniya
2 Venuvagimiyāya Dhamārakhitā-
3 yā dānaṁ^[9]

_______________________
^[1]Barua-Sinha read Bahaḍagojaṭiranatana. The bracketed letters are blurred and doubtful, but hi is more probable than ṭi. The fourth akshara is distinctly to, not go. The last two aksharas are clearly tuno.
^[2]The second akshara is distinctly si.
^[3]See classification II, 2, a (names derived from mental disposition and temperament).
^[4]See classification I, 4, a, 3 (names referring to Ṛishi-worship).
^[5]The name has remained unclassified.
^[6]bho has also the u-sign.
^[7]See classification II, 1, a (names derived from appearance of the body).
^[8]The term suttaṁtika of course refers to the study of the Suttapiṭaka, cf. PTSD. sub voce, Rhys Davids-Oldenberg, Vinaya Texts, Part I, p. XXX (SBE. XIII). The school of the Sautrāntikas, thought of by Hultzsch and Barua-Sinha, did not arise before the beginning of the third century A.D. In Barua’s later work (Barh. I, p. 46) the translation is “well-versed in Sūtras”. The corresponding sutātika in Sāñchī (List No. 635) is translated by Majumdar p. 297 ‘one who is versed in the Suttantas’. A nun versed in the sūtras is called sutātikinī (sautrāntikinī) List Nr. 319, 352 (Sāñchī).
^[9]This is the reading of Cunningham’s eye-copy. His transcript reads : Kosambeyekaya bhikkuniya Venuvagāmiyāya Dhama Rakhita.
Kosabeyekaya (or Kosaṁbeyikaya) bhikhuniya Venuvagāmiyāya Dhamarakhitāyā dānaṁ.