North Indian Inscriptions

THE GUPTA INSCRIPTIONS

SAÑCHI STONE INSCRIPTION OF CHANDRAGUPTA II: YEAR 93

augmenting (her own spiritual merit) . . . organised . . . a Brāhmaṇa of the township of Sadāsattra¹ . . . . . . by ten dīnāras (or in figures) 10.

       (Lines 8-9) And whosoever (breaks up) this bit of charity² shall become infected (with the Five Great Sins).

Second Part

       (Lines 10-12) In the year 80 8, of the (dynastic) rule of the prosperous Chandragupta the Mahārājādhirāja, an ardent devotee of Bhagavat (Vāsudēva) . . . (on this lunar day characterised by the week day).

       (Lines 12-16) . . . Pāṭaliputra . . . the wife of (the chief of ) the Householders . . . (for the purpose) of augmenting (her) own spiritual merit . . . a Brāhmaṇa of the township of Sadāsattra . . . ten dīnāras, (or in figures) 10.

       (Lines 16-17) (And whosoever) breaks up (this bit of charity) shall become infected with the Five Great Sins.

No. 9: PLATE IX

SĀÑCHĪ STONE INSCRIPTION ON CHANDRAGUPTA II:
THE YEAR 93

       This inscription was first brought to notice in 1834, in the JBAS., Vol. III, pp. 488 ff., where was published a lithograph of it (ibid., Plate xxviii), reduced by James Prinsep

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¹ The word sāmānya in the sense of ‘community’ is of common occurrence in inscriptions. We have thus Śrī-Valabhī-vinirggata-tach-Chāturvvidya-sāmānya-Vātsyāyana-sagōtra, in lines 44-45 of the Baroda plates of the Gujarāt Rāshṭrakūṭa prince Karka Suvarṇavarsha (Ind. Ant., Vol. XII, p. 160), Śrī-Varivai-vāstavya-tat-Traividya-sāmānya- Kuṇḍina-sagōtra-, in the Bagumrā plates of the Gujarāt Rāshṭrakūṭa prince Kṛishṇarāja Akālavarsha (ibid., Vol. XIII, p. 69), Girinagara-vinirggata-Śraddhik-āgrahāra-vāstavya-tach-Chāturvidya-sāmānya-Shrāvāyana-sagōtra-, in line 19 of the Nausārī plates of the Gurjara Jayabhaṭa (III) (ibid., Vol. XIII, p. 78), and so forth. Traividya and Chāturvidya of these records have been taken to stand for Trivēdī and Chaturvēdī of the modern day. It thus seems that sāmānya was here used in the sense of ‘surname of family name.” On the other hand, we have to take note of some- what dissimilar instances of the employment of this word. Thus, we have e.g., Bhāradvāja-gōtra-sāmānya-charaṇa, Kāśyapa-gōtra-sāmānya-charaṇa, etc., specified in lines 25-26 of some Brāhmaṇa grantees named in the Muḍiyanūr plates of the Bāṇa Malladēva-Nandivarman (ibid., Vol. XV, p. 175). It is not at all impossible that here the Gōtra served as family name as is still the case in U.P. and Panjab. Another instance that we have to note in this con- nection is Kaliṅganagara-sāmānyāya Gārggēya-sagōtrāya, occurring in line 10 of the Parlā-Kimeḍi plates of the Gaṅga Indravarman Rājasiṁha (Ind. Ant., Vol. XVI, p. 134). Here also it is quite possible to argue that Kaliṅganagara has been used as a surname of the Brāhmaṇa grantee, a practice which is still common in Madras and Mysore. In fact, this phraseology may be compared to Uṁbarakhēḍa-kulanāmadhēyāyā which occurs in the Haidarabad plates of Chalukya Pulakēśin II and to which we drew attention in Ind. Ant., Vol. XLI, p. 72. Here Uṁbarakhēḍa is ungues- tionably the name of a village, which is taken as a family name of the grantee; in other words, kulanāmadhēya here seems to be synonymous with sāmānya. Nothing, therefore, precludes us from supposing that the word sāmānya signifies primarily ‘a community’ or ‘township’ and is secondarily used to denote ‘surname’ or ‘family name.’ The same must be the sense in which the word has been employed in our inscription. Sadāsattra must, therefore, be taken to be the name of the place where this inscription and those bearing numbers 17 and 26 were engraved. And, as they all speak of endowments beings made to one and the same sattra, whether for feeding Brāhmaṇas or people of other castes, it is not unreasonable to surmise that this locality, which abounded in such charitable houses was for that reason called Sadāsattra. If any instances of such significant names are required, they are furnished by Pushkara so called because it contains (three) lakes (pushkara) as well as by Anūpa and Jāṅgala so named because they were originally or are even now watery or marshy (anūpa) and arid and unfertile (jaṅgala) countries.
² It is somewhat difficult to understand what dharma-skandha signifies. Skandha means ‘a troop, multitude, quantity, agrregate’; ‘a part, division (especially a division of an army or a form of military array)’; ‘a chapter, section (of a book, system, etc.).’ In these circumstances Dharma-skandha must mean either ‘a mass or aggregate of charity’ or ‘a bit, part or section of charity.’ The latter sense seems preferable.