South Indian Inscriptions

RELIGION

...Varāhadēva caused another cave to be excavated at excavated at Gulwāḍā, 11 miles west of Ajaṇṭā. Like Cave XVI, this cave also is of the Vihāra type, with a shrine of the Buddha in the dharma-chakra-pravartana-mudrā at the farther end. It is decorated with beautiful sculptures and well-carved pillars and pilasters, but contains no paintings. As the inscription in which Varāhadēva gave an account of his ancestors¹ is sadly mutilated in its lower portion, the purpose for which the cave was excavated remains unknown. Nearby is anothersmaller cave of the vihāra type which also was probably excavated by the same minister and dedicated to the Buddhist Saṅgha.

...Two other caves at Ajaṇṭā belong to the age of the Vākāṭakas. They are the Vihāra Cave XVII and the Chaitya Cave XIX. Both were excavated by a feudatory of Harishēna, who ruled over the Ṛishīka country. His name is unfortunately lost, as the inscription in Cave XVII, in which he had given an account of himself and his ancestors, is now very much mutilated. From the extant portion of it we learn that this princes was overwhelmed with sorrow at the premature death of his younger brother Ravisāmba.² Being convinced of the transitoriness of worldly existence, he began to lead a pious life. Realizing that wealth causes an obstacle in the attainment of siddhi, he adorned the earth with stūpas and vihāras. He caused the excellent monolith maṇḍapa (i.e. Cave XVII) containing the Chaitya of the Buddha to be excavated and provided it with a water-cistern. To the west of it, in another part of the hill he caused a gandhakuṭī (i.e. Chaitya Cave XIX) to be excavated. These two are known for their excellent paintings and sculptures respectively.

... As this inscription states, there must have been many such vihāras and Chaityas excavated or constructed in other parts of the Vākāṭaka empire, but they have now passed into oblivion.

...An analysis of the grants of the Vākāṭaka kings and their feudatories would shed interesting light on the religious tendencies of the age. Of the 27 inscriptions edited here, as many as nine are either incomplete or record no gift. Of the remaining eighteen grants, three³ record donations of vihāra and Chaitya caves to Buddhist Saṅghas, and fifteen, gifts of some land or village to Hindu gods and Brāhmaṇas. This shows that Buddhism was gradually losing ground⁴ and Hinduism was asserting itself. It would again be interesting to see on what occasions the gifts were made. The grants to Buddhist Saṅghas mention no particular occasion. Again, two⁵ of the grants to Brāhmaṇas contain only season dates and therefore afford no basis for conjecture. Of the remaining thirteen grants also, only three⁶ state explicitly the tithi of the gift, while the others contain only the dates when the gifts were actually recorded. From these latter, however, we can in some cases conjecture the occasion of the gift. For instance, if a gift is recorded on the 12th or the 13th of the bright or dark fortnight of a month, it would not be wrong to conjecture that it was made on the occasion of the pāraṇā after observing a fast on the preceding ,ēkādaśī (11th tithi). We thus find that of the aforementioned thirteen grants, as many as nine were made at the time of the pāraṇās of the following ēkādaśīs–
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¹ No. 26 lines 3 f.
² No. 27 lines 12 f.
³ Viz. Nos. 25, 26 and 27.
⁴ In the preceding age of the Sātavāhanas, most of the inscriptions records gifts to Buddhist Saṅghas.
⁵ Nos. 10 and 23.
⁶ Nos. 2, 7 and 14.