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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA Kushaṇa period and calls for no particular remarks. But it may be noted that in bhikhuṇîye (l. 2) we have the Prâkṛit form instead of the usual bhikshuṇî, and that the gen. sing. of feminine nouns ending in î retains the long î in bhikshuṇîye (l. 1), bhâgineyîye, bhikhuṇîye, Dhanavatîye (l. 2) ; the corresponding vowel of antevasin[î]ye (l. 1) is doubtful. The later Prâkṛit form pratithâvito (l. 2) seems certain. The inscription records that a Bôdhisattva was set up by the nun Dhanavatî, the sister’s daughter of the nun Buddhamitrâ,[1] who knew the Tripiṭaka, a female disciple (antevâsinî) of the monk Bala, who knew the Tripiṭaka. There can be no doubt as to the identity of this monk with the monk Bala mentioned in the Set-Mahet and Sârnâth inscriptions, and the three inscriptions thus cannot be far removed from each other in date. The Mathurâ inscription refers itself to the reign of Huvishka, the year 33, the 8th day of the 1st month of summer. However, the Set-Mahet inscription, like that from Sârnâth, probably belongs to the reign of Kanishka and is somewhat earlier than the Mathurâ inscription, which records a gift by the sister’s daughter of the nun Buddhamitrâ, whose name occurs already in the third year of Kanishka in connection with the name of Bala, the donor of the Sârnâth statue. The Mathurâ statue, like those from Sârnâth and Set-Mahet, is called a Bôdhisattva. Unfortunately nothing but its lower part, showing the crossed legs of a seated figure, is preserved (see the accompanying Plate). The place where the statue was set up seems to have been [Mâ]dh[u]ravaṇaka, the first part of which may have been derived from Madhurâ or Mathurâ, the name of the town where the statue actually has been found.
TEXT.[2]
1 Mahârajasya devaputrasya Huv[i]shkasya saṁ 30 3 gṛi 1 di 8
bhikshusya Balasya trepiṭakasya antev[â]s[i]n[î]ye[3] bhikshuṇîye tre[piṭikâ]ye
Buddhamitrâye
TRANSLATION. In the year 33 of the Mahârâja, the Dêvaputra Huvishka, on the 8th day of the 1st summer (month), a Bôdhisattva was set up at [Mâ]dh[u]ravaṇaka by the nun Dhanavatî, the sister’s daughter of the nun Buddhamitrâ, who knows the Tripiṭaka, a female pupil of the monk Bala, who knows the Tripiṭaka, together with her mother and father . . . . . . . ._________________________________ _______________________________________________________________
[1] She occurs again in Sârnâth No. III. a. l. 7.
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