EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
The inscription is engraved round a steatite vase, which was formerly kept in the Museum
at Peshawar and is now in the Central Museum, Lahore. Nothing is known about its origin.
Cunningham, it is true, was inclined to identify it with a vase said to be found by the villagers
in one of the Stûpas near Shâhpur ; but this is nothing but a mere guess.
The inscription was first edited, together with a facsimile, in 1863 by J. Dowson in the
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XX. p. 24, and Plate iii. fig. 2. In the same year
Cunningham published his version in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. XXXII.
p. 151, and added a correction ibid. p. 172. Cunningham’s readings were criticised by Dowson,
ibid. p. 428. In 1871 Cunningham edited the record again, with a facsimile, in his Archæological Survey Reports, Vol. II. p. 125, and Plate lix. The present edition is based on excellent impressions and photographs, sent to me, at the request of Dr. Vogel, by Mr. Ram Singh, Officiating
Curator of the Central Museum, Lahore.
TEXT.
Sihileṇa Siharachhiteṇa cha bhratarehi Takhaśilae ayaṁ thuvo pratithavito savabudhaṇa
puyae.
TRANSLATION.
By the brothers Sihila (Siṁhila) and Siharachhita (Siṁharakshita) this Stûpa was erected
at Takhaśilâ (Takshaśilâ) in honour of all the Buddhas.
REMARKS.
The characters, which vary in size from ¼″ to ½″, take an intermediate position between
those of the Aśôka edicts and those of the later Kushan inscriptions. From the latter they are
easily distinguished by the absence of the cursive element so strongly predominant there. The
differences from the Aśôka characters are less numerous and less marked ; bur the la with its
hook bent down and rounded and the sa with its vertical shortened at the top show clearly later
forms than the corresponding letters at Shâhbâzgarhi and Mansehra. The type of the characters
is thus the same as that of the Taxila copper-plate of Patika, and this fact seems to me decisive for the transliteration of the only nasal occurring in the present inscription. From a
grammatical point of view it might appear more natural to read Sihilena, Siharachhitena and
savabudhana ;but as the copper-plate inscription discriminates between na and ṇa, and as the
sign for the lingual used there is identical with the sign found in the present inscription, we
cannot but assume that the latter also represents a lingual ṇa. The copper-plate also furnishes
one instance of ṇ instead of Sanskṛit n in the word Śakamuṇisa (l. 3). Whether this spelling
reflects the actual pronunciation, or whether the North-Western dialect possessed but one n-sound, expressed in writing sometimes by the sign for the lingual, sometimes by that for the
dental, I do not venture to decide at present, although the second alternative seems to me the
more probable one.
In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1906, p. 453, Mr. Thomas has endeavoured
to show that the inscription is composed in an unknown metre. He considers the whole text to
be one stanza divided into two rhyming lines, each line consisting of five feet of five mâtrâs
with a concluding spondee. According to him the text, with the long vowels and double
consonants expressed in writing, would run :─
Sîhilêna Sîharachchhitêna cha bhrâtarêhi Takkhaśilâê |
ayaṁ thuvô pratitthâvitô savvabuddhâna pûyâê ||
It appears at once that the regularity of the metre is less great than supposed by
Mr. Thomas. His scansion is based on the wrong readings Gihilena and bhatarehi. The
correct readings Sihilena, which can only stand for Sîhilêna, and bhratarehi would imply that
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