|
The Indian Analyst
|
South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA published as edition. It thus appears that the date assigned to the Śrâvastî inscription in my previous paper was wrong, and that the missing name of the king should be restored either as Kanishka or as Huvishka, most probably the former one.
A.─ SET-MAHET IMAGE INSCRIPTION This inscription is on the pedestal of a colossal standing figure of a Buddha or Bôdhisattva, which was found by General Cunningham inside a small masonry building at Set-Mahet. It has since been removed to the Indian Museum, Calcutta. The pedestal measures 3 feet in length and 6 inches in height. Its right corner is broken, and about two-thirds of the first line of the inscription have become illegible. The size of the letters varies between ½ and 1¾ inches. The writing is archaic and resembles more the type used in the Kshatrapa inscriptions than the Kushaṇa type. The letter ya as part of a compound (saṁyuktâkshara) is expressed by its full form, and only once, in Pushyaº (l. 1), by a cursive form. The upper cross-bar of sha fills only the right half of the letter and does not reach to the left vertical line. Further details of palæography will be found in my previous paper (p. 277) and need not be repeated here. The language is a mixed form of Sanskṛit and Prâkṛit of the same type as that employed in other Kushaṇa inscriptions. Here again no details are required, as my previous paper contains a full statement of facts (p. 279). The inscription records that the statue, on the pedestal of which it has been engraved, and which it describes as a Bôdhisattva, together with an umbrella and a stick (l. 2 : bodhisatvo chhâtraṁ dâṇḍaś=cha) was put up at Śrâvastî, at the place where the Lord used to walk (l. 2 : Bhagavato chaṁkame), inside the Kosaṁbakuṭî (l. 3), as the gift of the monk Bala, who knew the Tripiṭaka and was a companion (saddhy[e]vihârisya, l. 2) of the monk Pushya[vuddhi],[1] and that it was the property of some teachers of the Sarvâstivâdin school of Buddhists.
As I have shown in my previous article (p. 286), the Kosaṁbakuṭî was a building inside the Jetavana park near Śrâvastî. The term Bhagavato chaṁkame may either have been used as another name of the Jetavana, or more probably it may have denoted a separate place within the park, where Buddha used to take exercise, and which was kept up as such by tradition, like the ‘ Buddha’s walk ’ north of the great temple of Budh-Gaya.[2] It is, however, likely that the place where Cunningham found the statue does not mark its original site, and that the ancient city of Śrâvastî lay further to the north, near the borders of Nepal.[3]
The date of the inscription is illegible, with the exception of the numerical figures 10 and 9,
meaning the 19th day. As the missing space is too long for a mere enumeration of the numbers
of the year and season, the date must have been determined by the name of the ruling king.
From the second inscription and the Sârnâth inscriptions published by Dr. Vogel, which mention
also a trepiṭaka Bala, who must have been identical with the person of the same name and title
referred to in this inscription, we may confidently restore the beginning of the first line as :
[Mahârâjasya devaputrasya Kanishkasya (or Huvishkasya ?) saṁ . . . di] 10 9, and
it is beyond doubt that the inscription belongs to the time of the Kushaṇa kings, either of
Kanishka or Huvishka, not of the Kshatrapas Rañjubula or Śoḍâsa, as I suggested in my
previous article for palæographical reasons. As will be shown later on, the reign of Kanishka
is more likely to be the true date of the inscription than the time of his successor Huvishka.
[1] That is Pushyavṛiddhi. Sârnâth No. III.a shows that the name should be restored thus, not as Pushya-mitra as I proposed originally. See Dr. Vogel’s article, p. 175 above.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| > |
|
>
|