Epigraphia Indica Vol 08

SR No.: 032562
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: E Hultzsch
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1905
Total Pages: 398
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 18 MB

Page 206

No. 18.]
TWO INSCRIPTIONS ON BUDDHIST IMAGES.
179
in my opinion, would well agree with the evidence of the coins which, starting from purely Hellenistic types, manifest a constant deterioration ending in the barbarous issues of the Kushanas. And in like manner the sculptures which owed their origin to the same Hellenistic influence must have had a parallel history of gradual Indianisation.
The Sârnâth image has two inscriptions: one, as in Gupta sculptures, carved on the front of the plain pedestal, the other on the back of the image between the feet. The former (ii, b, c) is divided into two halves by a vertical, semi-circular groove. It consists of two lines, each half being nearly 24 cm. in length. The size of the letters varies between 1 and 5 cm. In the second half of the first line the sixth akshara is slightly damaged, and at the end one or two aksharas are lost. I read it :
1 Bhikshusya Balasya trepitakasya Bodhisatvo prat[i]shthápito . . .
2 mahakshatrapena Kharapallånens sahâ kshatrapena Vanashparena.
"(This gift) of Friar Bala, a master of the Tripitaka, (namely an image of) the Bôdhisattva, has been erected by the great satrap Kharapallâna together with the satrap Vanashpara.”
The inscription on the back of the image (iii. d) consists of three lines. The proper left side of the inscribed surface, which measures 40 by 17 cm., is defaced, and at the bottom a piece is broken, causing the loss of the concluding word. On an impression taken immediately after the discovery of the image, the upper parts of the aksharas of this word were plainly visible. But it seems that in removing it a piece of the stone has chipped off. The missing portion of the inscription can thus be restored with certainty. The size of the letters is 1 to 4-5 cm. The following is my reading :
1 Maharajasya Kaņi[shkasya] sam 8 he 3 di 2[2] 2 etaye purvaye bhikshasya Balasya trepita[kasya]
3 Bodhisatvo chhatrayashți cha (pratishthäpito).
“In the 3rd year of Maharaja Kanishka, the 3rd (month) of winter, the 22nd day, on this date specified as) above has (this gift) of Friar Bala, a master of the Tripitaka, (namely an image of the Bodhisattva and an umbrella with a post, been erected."
No. 18.-TWO INSCRIPTIONS ON BUDDHIST IMAGES.
BY T. BLOCH, PA.D. The first of these two inscriptions comes from Srivasti and has already been edited by me in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LXVIII., 1898, Part I. pp. 274 to 290. I re-edit it here partly in order to publish a facsimile of it, and partly to correct the statement made by me (loo. cit. p. 278) in regard to its date. The second inscription comes from Mathura and has recently been edited by Prof. Lüders (Ind. Ant. Vol. XXXIII. p. 39, No. 9) from the imperfect facsimile pablished by Growse (ibid. Vol. VI. p. 217, No. 2 and Plate). If I edit it here again, it is because, having read the inscription from the original during a visit to Lucknow in October, 1904, and with the help of two paper impressions kindly supplied to me by Dr. Vogel, I have been able to supply the three proper names mentioned in the inscription, which in Prof. Lüders' transcript remained doubtful. The first of these is the most important one. It is clearly Balasya trepifakasya, not [Maha]sya as Prof. Lüders proposed to read. This person cannot be separated from the trepitaka Bala of the Sråvasti inscription, and of the recently discovered Sårnáth inscriptions of the third year of Kanishka, of which Dr. Vogel has just
1 Two of them have also been read by Dr. Vogel in his article on discoveries at Skruath, p. 173 above.
2 A 2