South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

The statue to which the inscription belongs is shown on the accompanying Plate. It is called a Bôdhisattva. Unfortunately the head is broken, and it is impossible to say whether it wore some sort of a diadem, as the so-called ‘ Bôdhisattva ’ figures in the contemporaneous art of Gandhâra. There are, however, no necklace or other ornaments of the body, and the feet are naked. The left hand rests on the hip, and the broken right hand probably was uplifted in the act of granting protection (abhaya-mudrâ). The right shoulder is bare, and between the feet stands some indistinct round object, which I am unable to explain. The girdle around the waist is the only mark of difference between this statues and the ordinary type of a Buddha image. The term Bôdhisattva is likewise applied to the Mathurâ image to which the second inscription belongs, and which was a seated figure. Unfortunately it is broken, and not much can be said in regard to its general appearance.

From Dr. Vogel’s account it appears that the recently excavated Sârnâth image is very similar to that from Śrâvastî. He also suggests that all these three images were made at Mathurâ. The Śrâvastî image is 11 feet 8 inches high. Its material is the red sandstone from the quarries near Fathpur-Sikri.

TEXT.

1 [Mahârâjasya devaputrasya Kanishkasya (or Huvishkasya) saṁ . . . . . . di] 10 9 etaye purvaye bhikshusya Pushya[vu]-
2 [ddhis]ya^[1] saddhy[e]vihârisya^[2] bhikshusya Balasya trepiṭakasya dânaṁ B[o]dhisatvo chhâtraṁ dâṇḍaś=cha Śâvastiye Bhagavato chaṁkame
3 Kosaṁbakuṭiye acharyyâṇâṁ Sarvastivâdinaṁ^[3] parigahe.

TRANSLATION.

[In the . . . th year of the Mahârâja, the Dêvaputra Kanishka (or Huvishka ?), in the . . . th month of . . . . . . , on the] 19th [day], on the date specified above, a Bôdhisattva, an umbrella and a stick, the gift of the monk Bala, who knows the Tripiṭaka, a companion (saddhy[e]vihârin) of the monk Pushya[vṛiddhi], (have been set up) at Śrâvastî, at the place where the Lord (i.e. Buddha) used to walk, in the Kosaṁbakuṭî, as the property of the teachers of the school of Sarvâstivâdins.

B.─ MATHURA IMAGE INSCRIPTION OF THE YEAR 33 OF HUVISHKA.

This inscription is on the broken pedestal of a seated Buddha image from the Chaubârâ mound near Mathurâ. It is now in the Lucknow Provincial Museum. It measures 3 feet by 2½ inches. The size of the letters varies between ½ and 1¾ inches. The end of the second line is damaged and cannot be restored completely.

The writing is of a later type than the Set-Mahet image inscription. The ya in the compound letter sya is expressed by the cursive form in devaputrasya, Huvishkasya and trepiṭakasya (l. 1), and by the full form of the letter in bhikshusya Balasya (l. 1), while an intermediate form, with a loop attached to the left-hand side of the central line, is found in mahârajasya (l. 1). The old form of sha with a small upper cross-bar occurs only once, in bhikshusya (l. 1), if the impression can be trusted. The later sa with a loop in the left-hand lower corner is found in mahârajasya, devaputrasya, saṁ (l. 1), as has been pointed out already by Prof. Lüders (loc. cit. p. 140). The language is the ordinary mixed dialect of Sanskṛit and Prâkṛit employed in the
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^[1] See above, p. 180, note 1.
^[2] So with Sârnâth No. III. a, lines 2 and 6. The surface of the stone above ddhy is damaged.
^[3] The vâ is added in small letters at the top of the line.