South Indian Inscriptions

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA

bably the stroke on the left is accidental, and we ought to read phâ. ─ (49) AS. V[i]ṅhuº, which is a printer’s mistake for Viṇhuº ; G Veṇhuº. ─ (50) G. sâmivaṇanâṇata ; AS sâmivananânata.─ (51) G. namo, which is perhaps right. ─ (52) G. bhaga[va]tasaº ; AS bhagatasaº ; G. ºpatipatipasa.

TRANSLATION.

“ Success ! The lord of Navanara, Siri-Puḷumâvi Vâsiṭhîputa, commands Sivakhanadila, the officer at Govadhana : The village of Sudisaṇa here in the Govadhana district on the Southern road, which by us, in the 19th year, on the 13th day of the 2nd fortnight of summer, . . . . by the Samaṇas of Dhanaṁkaṭa who [dwell] here on mount Tiraṇhu . . . . . , has been given to be owned by the Bhikshus of that fraternity, the Bhadâyaniyas dwelling in the Queen’s Cave, to produce a perpetual rent for the care of the cave meritoriously excavated, ─ in exchange for this gift, ─ the village of Sudasaṇa,─ we give the village of Sâmalipada, here in the Govadhana district on the Eastern road ; and this village of Sâmalipada, . . . . . by the Mahâ-Âryaka, you must deliver to be owned by the Bhikshus of the school of the Bhadâyaniyas dwelling in the Queen’s Cave, to produce a perpetual rent for the care of the cave meritoriously excavated ; and to this village of Sâmalipada we grant the immunity belonging to monk’s land, (making it) not to be entered (by royal officers), not to be touched (by any of them), not to be dug for salt, not to be interfered with by the district police, (in short) to enjoy all kinds of immunities. With all these immunities you must invest it ; and this donation of the village of Sâmalipada and the immunities take care to have registered here at Sudasaṇa. And by the (officers) entrusted with the abrogation of the (previous) donation of the Sudasaṇa village it had been ordered. Written by the Mahâsenâpati Medhuna . . . . . . , kept (?) by the . . . . . of deeds (?). The deed was delivered in the year 22, the 7th day of the . . fortnight of summer ; executed by . . . . . (?). With a view for the well-being of the inhabitants of Govadhana, Viṇhupâla proclaims the praise of the Lord : Obeisance to the Being exalted in perfection and majesty, the excellent Jina, the Buddha.”

This inscription offers in its last part some difficulties which result from uncertain readings and even more from lacunæ. In order not to lengthen this commentary unnecessarily, I shall not dwell on differences of opinion in a few passages where former interpreters have decidedly gone astray.

From the comparison of Benâkaṭasvâmi in the next inscription, which offers many analogies to the present one, I infer that Dr. Bhandarkar was right in understanding Navanarasvâmin = lord of Navanara, I suppose for Navanagara. Nothing in the other inscriptions entitles us to look in it for some hypothetical biruda.

The sentence beginning with ya amhehi rests on two propositions which are exactly balanced and throw light upon one another. The general construction is clearly determined by the symmetry which obtains between the relative proposition : ya amhehi . . . . . Bhadâyaniyehi patigaya data on the one hand, and the principal one : eta cha . . . . . patigayha oyapâpehi. They correspond link to link. The general similarity makes the more conspicuous the discrepancy which exists in respect of a single detail : instead of Dhanaṁkaṭasamanehi y[e] etha pavate Tira . . . . na, line 13 has mahaaïrakena odena. This disagreement is made worse by the lacuna and by the partial uncertainty of the reading odena. The obscurity of these two expressions is to my mind the only real difficulty in this part of the text One useful result at least, although only a negative one, is gained from their comparison, namely, that the singular construction attempted by Bühler, who supposed samanchi and aïrakena to be governed by paṭikhaya (as he read), must first of all be discarded. To connect, as he did, Dhanakaṭasamanehi and bhikhuhi which are separated from each other by a whole sentence, is too inadmissible to require a lengthy refutation. Either member includes two terms. first