North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

Mahav. VI, 15, 1; Chullav. VI, 21, 3 the ārāmikas were park-keepers and sometimes servants of the Saṁgha, without being monks. It is more difficult to account for the epithet of Susupāla. Hoernle was of the opinion that Koḍāya might be connected with Sk. Kauṇḍinya, P. Kodañña, which is phonetically impossible. Barua-Sinha’s derivation of Koḍaya from Kodṛ-rāja or Koṭṭa-rāja, ‘ the ruler of a fort ’ need not be discussed. I am sure that Hultzsch was right in taking Koḍāyo as a clerical error for Koḍiyo, ‘ belonging to the Koḍya or Koliya tribe’.

    The legend represented in the relief remains unknown for the time being ^[1]. But the inscription B 81 allows with high probability to identify the saint to whom the Chaitya belonged.

B 73 (707); PLATES XXII, XLVII

ON a coping-stone, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (A 54). Edited by Cunningham, StBh. (1879), p. 98; 131, No. 18, and Pl. XLVIII and LIII, Hoernle, IA. Vol. X (1881), p. 120 f., No. 8; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 62, No. 18, and Pl.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 228, No. 18; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 98 f., No. 223; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 169, and Vol. III (1937), Pl. XCV (144); Lüders, Bhārh. (1941), p. 80 ff.

TEXT:
V[e]ḍuko ^[2] katha dohati Naḍode pavate

TRANSLATION:
Veḍuka milks the tattered garment on Mount Naḍoda^[3].

  On the left side of the relief a man is seen squatting on the ground. With both hands he holds the two ends of a somewhat peculiar object, which is suspended from a tree. He is evidently ‘ milking ’ them into small basin held between his knees. The sculptor has even represented the stream of liquid gushing out. The right half of the relief is occupied by four square blocks of different size. Their upper side is slightly concave and covered with symbols which, being three-forked, differ from the ordinary pañchaṅgulikas.

    In Bharhut quite a number of representations is found, the scene of which is the mountain Naḍoda^[4], which seems to have been in the vicinity of Bhārhut and connected with several local legends. R. P. Chanda (MASI. No. 30, p. 6) identified it with a chain of hills called Naro, six miles to the north of Bhārhut. The identification is attractive, even if phonetically it is not completely free from doubt, for then we should expect to get at least Nalo.

   Veḍuka is undoubtedly identical with the gardener Veḍuka mentioned in No. B 72 in
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^[1]Barua hints at the Mahāvāṇijaj. (493), whereas in his list the relief is directly identified with the said Jātaka. How this is possible, I am at a loss to understand. The only similarity between the sculpture and the Jātaka is the circumstance that in both of them a nyagrodha appears.
^[2]The first akshara was read va by Cunningham. Hoernle and Bühler adopted this reading, while Hultzsch read ve. The e-sign, although partially coinciding with the framing line of the label, becomes almost certain by the occurrence of Veḍuko in No. B 72.
^[3]It is unnecessary to discuss Hoernle’s translation of the inscription as it is based on an interpretation which nobody will uphold now. Nor can I follow the confused speculations of Barua-Sinha which culminate in the invention of a Jātaka. Their identifications of Veḍuka with Vaḍika, the hero of Avadāna 6 in the Avś. (I, p. 28 ff.) and at the same time with Vajika, a supposed surname of Sakka, and of Naḍoda with Nārada, or Naḍoda pavata with Nārada and Parvata are absolutely unfounded.
^[4]The name of the mountain is at times directly mentioned in the labels and at times it is to be inferred. As regards the explanation of the word Naḍoda I refer to my remarks on No. B 69.