South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

“In verse I, should not javana be taken in the technical seuse, as described in Rhys Davids-Stede, Pali Dictionary, s. v. ? It is a puzzle to me that the term does not appear to occur in Buddhist Sanskrit. I would suggest the meaning here is “of immeasurable intelligence” (or “power of perception”?).

“The last verse refers to the legend that Mahākali attained Nirvāṇa, but after it his body was preserved by magic, and he entered the Gurupāda mountain, where he awaits the coming of Maitreya. Hiuan Tsang’s account of it differs slightly from this and from the verse, in making his Nirvāṇa be deferred till the meeting with Maitreya. For the canonical accounts see Watters, On Yuan Chwang. II, 114, and much more fully in J. Przyluski, La Legendé ‘Acoka 167 ff. (Is this latter important work not available in Indian Libraries ?) Dr. Chhabra is clearly not satisfied with his own translation and has not seen the significance of adhiṣṭhāya, which refers to adhiṣṭhāna, the magic spiritual power of Buddha, by which he causes things to endure, or a Bodhisattva to explain the most esoteric points of doctrine. For references see La Vallée Poussin, L’Abhidharmakośa de Vasubandhu, ch. iii, 31, and ch. vii, 119 and E. Lamotte, Notes sur la Bhagavadgītā, 56 ff., and Suzuki, Studies in the Laṅkāvatārasūtra, 377.

“Despite the last, I think it is unusual to find the power attributed to anyone except the Buddha. It is of course a specifically Mahāyāna doctrine, and the Hīnayāna adopted it from them. I take it that the verse means “This Kāśyapa, who passed into Nirvāṇa and yet kept his body in existence by his magic power just for the good of the world, resides (lit. shines) in the Beautiful Gurupāda mountain; i. e. inside the mountain, not on it.”

I have nothing to add, except one remark in connection with Dr. Johnston’s explanation of the last verse. It might be considered right provided the sō=’yam of the original be taken as referring to Kāśyapa himself. It is, on the contrary, presumed that we are concerned here with the statue and the inscription on its pedestal. And when the latter says sō=’yam=ābhāti Kāśyapaḥ, it obviously alludes to the stone image of Kāśyapa,^[1] and not to Kāśyapa as a person. Such being the case, would it not be correct to say ‘on the mountain, not inside it’ rather than ‘inside the mountain, not on it’?

Further, I am inclined to connect Gurupādē girau ramyē with nirvṛitaḥ and not with sō=’yam=ābhāti.^[2] The difference it makes is as obvious as it is consequential. According to the latter construction, the statue must necessarily have been set up on the Gurupāda hill itself, whereas according to the former it might have been established anywhere else as well. In fact, the possibility of its having been erected in the vicinity of the village of Silao, if not at Silao proper, has already been shown.^[3]

B.─Chandrabaṇḍi Rock Inscription, Śaka 803.

This inscription has been edited by the late C. R. Krishnamacharlu.^[4] It is a Kannaḍa record and pertains to the Jaina faith. It consists of only six lines, the last two of which comprise the following Āryā in Sanskrit :

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^[1] It has been pointed out that ‘ the inscription is virtually a label to the image ’ (ibid., p. 328).
^[2] Ibid., p. 333, note 12.
^[3] Ibid., p. 327, para. 1, p. 331, para. 2.
^[4] The Kannaḍa Inscriptions of Kopbāḷ (Hyderabad Archaeological Series, No. 12, Calcutta, 1935), pp. 6-7, plate I (b).
^[5] It may be pointed out that the sign of medial (long) ī is not distinguishable from medial (short) i in this inscription, and that the rule of sandhi has not been observed in kuryyāi śrī-.