North Indian Inscriptions

PART B

   The lower part of the medallion has been broken off, but enough remains to show that it was of the common type described under Nos. B 13, B 14, B 16, and B 17. In the middle is a Śirīsha tree (Acacia sirissa) in full blossom. In front of it is a seat on each side of which a worshipper is kneeling, a woman on the left and a man on the right. Two persons are a man throwing flowers from a cup which he carries in his left hand. The literary sources agree with the sculpture in assigning the Śirīsha tree to Kakusandha (D. II, 4; J. I, 42; Mahān. p. 227).

    The Pali form of the Budhha’s name is Kakusandha (D. II, 2 ff.; M. I, 333 ff.; Th. 1187 f. and J. I. 42 ff.; 94). As the name seems to be a compound of kakud and saṁdha, we should except rather Kakussandha. In Sanskrit the name appears regularly in the strange form Krakuchchhanda (Mvu. I, 294; 318; II, 265; III, 240 f.; 243; Lalitav. 5; 281; 283; Divy. 333; Mvp. 2, 9; Mahām. p. 227; 250; Hem. Abh. 236).^[1] The form Krakutsanda occurs only Mvu. I, 2 and as variant reading Mvp. 2, 9.

B 16 (722); PLATES XVII, XXXIII

ON a pillar of the South-Eastern quadrant, now in the Indian Museum, Calcutta (M 5). The inscription is engraved over a medallion. Edited by Cunningham, PASB. 1874, p. 115; StBh. (1879), p. 114; 132, No. 11, and Pl. XXIX and LIII; Hultzsch, ɀDMG. Vol. XL (1886), p. 64, No. 30, and Pl. ; IA. Vol. XXI (1892), p. 229, No. 30; Ramaprasad Chanda, MASI. No. I (1919), p. 19, and Pl. V; Barua-Sinha, BI. (1926), p. 40 f., No. 139; Barua, Barh. Vol. II (1934), p. 4, and Vol. III (1937), Pl. XXXVI (30); Lüders, Bharh. (1941), p. 26 ff.

TEXT:
bhagavato Konāgamenasa^[2] bedhi^[3]

TRANSLATION:
The Bodhi tree of the holy Konagamana.

   The medallion over which the inscription is engraved is of the same type as the medallion described under Nos. B 13, B 14m, B 15, and B 17. In the centre there is an Udumbara tree (Ficus glomerata) hung with garlands. In front of it is a seat formed of a slab supported by two pillars. On each side of it a woman kneels kissing the seat, while a man stands on either side of the tree, the one on the left offering a garland, the other holding in his left hand a bowl filled with some round object, probably flowers, which he scatters with his right hand.

  In conformity with the representation in the relief Konāgamana’s Bodhi tree is everywhere stated to be the Udumbara tree (D. II, 4 ; J. I, 43; Maham. p. 227).

  Konagamenasa in the inscription is apparently a clerical error for Konāgamanasa just as bedhi for bodhi. In Pāli the form of the name varies between Konagamana and
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^[1]Cf. E. Burnouf, Introduction, I, p. 225, p. 414.
^[2] Read Konāgamanasa.
^[3]Read bodhi. The engraver has forgotten to add the vowel-stroke to the right. (A horizontal stroke to the left of dhi could be seen in the rubbing. This may not have anything to do with the missing right-hand vowel stroke of bo.)