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The Indian Analyst
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South Indian Inscriptions |
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE TRAIKUTAKAS (L. 17) Having inquired again (about the details of the grant) I, the Mahāsāndhivigrahika Karka, have written (this charter), Hālāhala being the dūtaka. The year 200, 40 (and) I, (the month) Kālttika, the bright (fortnight), (the lunar day) 10 (and) 5.
No.10; PLATE V A KANHERI is situated on the island of Salsette, about twenty miles from Bombay. It is well-known for its numerous Buddhist caves. The place was visited by the Chinese pilgrim Fa Hian who has left us a description of a five–storeyed cave temple there. The present plate was discovered in 1839 by Dr. James Bird. He gives the following account of its discovery in his article entitled ‘the opening of the Topes at the caves of Kānari and the relics found in them’, which was published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. X, pp. 94 ff. ‘Immediately in front of the large arched cave and on a ledge of the mountain, some thirty or forty feet below, there are several small Thopas or monumental receptacles for the bones of a Buddha or Rahat, built of cut stone at the base. They were once of a pyramidal shape, but are now much dilapidated, and appear like a heap of stones. Several years ago I thought of opening some of them, in expectation of obtaining coins or other relics; but found no favourable opportunity until lately, when several lengthened visits in company with Dr. Heddle gave me the desired means of doing so.
‘The largest of the topes selected for examination appeared to have been one time between twelve and sixteen feet in height. It was much dilapidated, and was penetrated from above to the base, which was built of cut stone. After digging to the level of the ground and clearing away the materials, the workmen came to a circular stone, hollow in the centre, and covered at the top by a piece of gypsum. This contained two small copper urns, in one of which were small ashes mixed with a ruby, a pearl, small pieces of gold and a small gold box containing a piece of cloth; in the other a silver box and some ashes were found. Two cooper-plates containing legible inscriptions in the Lath or cave character, accompanied the urns and these, as far as I have yet been able to decipher them, inform us that the persons buried here were of the Buddhist faith. The smaller of the copperplates bears an inscription in two lines, the last part of which contains the Buddhist creed.â Dr. Bird kept the plates with himself and published a small lithograph in his Historical Researches. He subsequently wrote the aforementioned article in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal which was accompanied by an eye-copy of the record with an interlinear transcription in Dēvanāgarī and an English translation. Later on Rev. J. Stevenson, D.D., attempted a transcript and a translation from the same eye-copy, as the plate could not be traced after Dr. Bird’s death. His article was published in July 1853 in the Journal of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. V, pp. 10 ff. The work of both Dr. Bird and Dr. Stevenson was very imperfect, though the former recognized that it was a Buddhist inscription and the latter gave a correct reading of its date. The record was first correctly read by Pandit Bhagvanlal Indraji with his wonted ingenuity, from the eye-copy published in the J.A.S.B. His transcript, which was accompanied by an English translation and an enlarged facsimile of Dr. Bird’s lithograph, was published in the Inscriptions from the Cave-Temples of Western India, pp. 56 ff. The plate is edited here from the same facsimile. It will be seen that the transcript given here differs from Pandit Bhagvanlal’s text in very few places. |
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