North Indian Inscriptions

SRAVANA-BELGOLA EPITAPH OF MALLISHENA.

the jasmine, (and) who, a bee on the beautiful lotus-hands of magicians,¹ firmly established sacred knowledge in India (Bharata) ?

......(V. 6.) Worthy of worship is he who was skilled in reducing to ashes morbid appetite ;² on whom an exalted position was conferred by the goddess Padmâvatî ; who summoned (the Arhat) Chandraprabha by the words of his spells ; the head of a school, the teacher Samantabhadra, by whom in this Kali age the Jaina path was suddenly made samantabhadra, (i.e.) prosperous on all sides.

......(Line 18.) NOTE (chûrṇi).— The following fine words (sûkti) manifest his display of eagerness to commence disputations :—

......METRE (vṛitta).— (V. 7.) “At first the drum was beaten by me within the city of Pâtaliputra,³ afterwards in the country of Mâlava, Sindhu, and Ṭhakka, at Kâñchîpura, (and) at Vaidiśa. I have (now) reached Karahâṭaka, which is full of soldiers, rich in learning, (and) crowded (with people). Desirous of disputation, O king ! I exhibit the sporting of a tiger.

......(V. 8.) “While Samantabhadra stands disputing in thy court, O king ! even the tongue of Dhûrjaṭi (Śiva), who talks distinctly and skilfully, quickly wanders (back) into (its) hole. What hope (of success is there) for other (opponents) ?”

......(V. 9.) The sharp sword of the meditation on the blessed Arhat, which breaks, as a line of stone pillars, the hostile army of destructive sins,⁴ was conferred as a boon on him,⁵ though he was a (mere) disciple. Otherwise, how could he, together with the sage Siṁhanandin, have broken by (his) sword⁶ the solid stone pillar, which barred the road to the acquisition of the fortune of the kingdom ?

......(V. 10.) Could the king of serpents, though he possesses ten hundred throats, adequately praise the power of speech, which overcame the crowd of orators, of the great sage Vakragrîva who, respected by the Śâsanadêvatâ, while the necks of the devils, (viz. all) the disputants in this (world), were bent with shame, briefly discussed the meaning of the word atha⁷ during six months.

......(V. 11.) O lords of poets ! your praises will not reach him in spite of all trouble ; make a profound obeisance to the sage Nandin whose (name) begins with Vajra (i.e. Vajranandin), who composed the Navastôtra, which is pleasant as an excellent composition, containing the variety if the doctrines of all the Arhats !
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......¹ [Châraṇa probably means here ‘a Jaina monk endowed with magical powers.’ In this sense the word occurs occasionally as an abbreviation of vidyâ-châraṇa. I cannot vouch for the correctness of this translation as I do not know if the tradition of the Digambaras connects Kundakunda with a professor of legerdemain like Khapuṭâchârya.— E. L.]
......² The learned Brahmasûri Śâstri informs me that the meaning of the word bhasmaka is thus explained in Vâdîbhasiṁha’s Kshatrachûḍâmaṇi :— . Compare Mr. Rice’s Introduction, p. 61.
......³ मध्यनगरे appears to stand for नगरमध्ये.
......⁴ Brahmasûri Śâstrî gave me the following explanation of the expression ghâti-mala :—.
. The four ghâtînî kaṛmâṇi are specified in Dr. Bhandarkar’s Report on Skt. MSS. 1883-84, p. 93, note 1.
......⁵ At first sight this pronoun would appear to refer to Samantabhadra, whose name was mentioned in the preceding verse. But, as noticed by Mr. Rice, it is more probable that the pronoun points to the mythical Gaṅga king Koṅgaṇi ; see p. 186 above.
......⁶ The only possible way in which I can explain the second half of this difficult verse, is to assume that is meant for .
......⁷ is generally the first word of Sanskṛit books..