Old Bramhi Inscriptions In Udaygiri And Khandagiri

SR No.: 020516
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Benimadhab Barua
Publisher: University of Calcutta
Publication Year: 1929
Total Pages: 354
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 15 MB

Page 321

NOTES
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beryl-hall, as well as of causing one-half-hundred shrine-posts, ornamented with the alternate settings of beryl and emerald, to be produced alongside (patalika-catare ca veduriya-gabhe thambhe patithāpayati panatariya-satasuhasehi, veduriya-nila-vochimnam cera-yathi-adhasati kam tiriyam upādayati).
With regard to the 117 caves jointly excavated on the Kumārī hill by King Khāra vela and others, the following questions are apt to arise here: (1) Why all of them were not inscribed ? (2) What was the system of counting them ? (3) What has befallen the missing caves ? (4) How to account for their modern names ? (5) What are the component parts of a cave? (6) What is the technical significance of the term lena ? (7) What are the purposes that these caves in particular were intended to serve ?
First, the question as to why all the 117 caves were not inscribed has been discussed at some length in connection with the problem of the relative total of the caves and inscriptions. We have sought hitherto to maintain that the caves excavated by the donors other than Khāravela himself were labelled with inscriptions, recording in each of them the name of the person or persons by whom the particular cave or group of caves was excavated or the component parts of a cave were donated, while in the case of the caves excavated by King Khāravela, as well as of other works of art and architecture done under his auspices, we have a departure from the general rule in that these, instead of bearing a separate inscription each, are all collectively referred to in the records of a single inscription, namely, the lengthy inscription of Khāravela incised on the hanging brow of the projected roof of the Hathi-Gumphā on the present hill of Udayagiri. We have also pointed out that the thirteenth year's record in this inscription alludes in a general fashion to the caves excavated by his queens, sons, brothers, relatives and officers, in which case the engraving of separate inscriptions would have been superfluous were it not for keeping them distinct from His Majesty's own works, and no less for eatisfying the natural but legitimate desire of the various donors to perpetuate their memory and offering an incentive to others to similar acts of piety.
Secondly, as to the system of counting the caves, the general principle seems to have been to count each of the one-storeyed caves consisting of one or more cells or chambers confronted by an open or pilla red verandah as one cave, and to count each such suit on each floor of a two-storeyed construction as one cave, e.g., in the example of the Mañcapuri group of caves representing a two-storeyed construction, the suit in the upper storey was labelled by an inscription recording it to be a cave excavated by Khāra. vela's chief queen, and the corresponding suit in the lower storey was