North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

TEXT :
Dusito giri dadati Na .. .. ^[1]

TRANSLATION :
Dusita presents the mountain Na(ḍoda ?).

   Cunningham (StBh. p. 131, No. 22) gives an inscription found on a piece of a coping- stone which is now lost. He reads it Dustito-giri dadati. According to his eye-copy on Pl. LIII, it is be read as dusitogirida dati; after these letters still a vertical stroke is visible which can be a remnant of na. Between da and dati his sketch shows a lacuna which has to be explained. Like all labels of the coping-stone the inscription must have been engraved on the lowest step of the pyramids above the reliefs. If an inscription runs over several steps the result naturally is that gaps sometimes appear in the middle of a word, e.g. in the inscription B 63 dighatapasisi seanusāsati or in the inscription B 73 veḍukokathado hatinaḍodapa vate. On the step of the pyramids there is room for six letters. Also it is certain that nothing precedes dusito which must be the first word of the inscription.

    Among the fragments of inscriptions now lost Cunningham gives one which he reads on p. 143, No. 18 dusito-giri datina. According to his eye-copy on Pl. LVI it runs dusitogirida tina. It seems to be clear that Cunningham gives the same inscription erroneously twice and that we have to restore it as Dusito giri dadati na. Dusito is probably a personal name, and the first three words are defective writing for Dusito giriṁ dadāti ‘ Dusita presents the mountain ’. Barua and Sinha take the following na as negation and connect the inscription with G. 1 of the Suchchajaj. (320) in which we hear of the not-giving of a mountain^[2]. This is highly improbable. The negative particle na would have to stand before the verb^[3]. It is much more probable that the concluding part of the inscription is lost, and I have already proposed in my List of Brāhmī inscriptions No. 711 to restore the na to Naḍodaṁ. As the scene represented has been lost and as particulars of the legends referring to mount Naḍoda are not known for the time being, this restoration can only be called a possibility.

B 76 (781 AND 791)^[4] ; PLATE XXVIII

ON a pillar of the North-Western quadrant. Original lost. Edited by Cunningham StBh. (1879), p. 137, No. 70, and Pl. LIV; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 59 f.; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 232, note 43; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 87, No. No. 204; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 121; Lüders, Bhārh. (1941), p. 87 f.

TEXT :
[Na]ḍodapāde dhenachhako^[5]

_________________________
^[1]From Cunningham’s eye-copies on plates LIII and LVI. In the copy on plate LIII na is only partly legible, in the copy on plate LVI the second da has been omitted. Restore perhaps Naḍoda or Naḍodṁ.
^[2 Suchchajam vata na chchaji vāchāya adadaṁ girim |
kiṁ hi tass’ achajantassa vāchāya adada pabbataṁ ||
The second line is obviously spoiled.
^[3]What Barua and Sinha remark for the explanation of dusito can be passed over in silence.
^[4]Cunningham’s inscription No. 70 (List 981) appears to be identical with his inscription No. 79 (List 791), mentioned amongst the three inscriptions found on displaced pillars. It is very improbable. that there should have existed two labels with the same text.
^[5]From Cunningham’s eye-copies Plate LIV No. 70 and 79. Cunningham read Dodapāpechena charo in No. 70, and naḍoda pāde chena chhako in No. 79. The first akshara, which has been omitted in No. 70, is marked as damaged in No. 79. The right half of the cross-bar of ko is wanting in No. 70. Hultzsch followed Cunningham in reading chenachhako, but first akshara can only be dhe.