Epigraphia Indica Vol 09

SR No.: 032563
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: E Hultzsch, Sten Konow
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1907
Total Pages: 498
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 28 MB

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No. 33.]
Kaneshka would not be preferable. On the whole, contemporary records certainly are in favour of the spelling with the lingual, and I would therefore propose to use Kanishka as the common form of the name. The spelling with the long vowel in the first syllable as in the present inscription is unusual, but it does not stand quite alone. In the Sârnâth inscription, No. 3a, the editor, it is true, reads Kanishkasya, but the photo-lithograph' distinctly shows Kanishkasya.
THREE EARLY BRAHMI INSCRIPTIONS.
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Turning to the special object of the inscription, we may infer from the concluding words that the temple was dedicated to a goddess, and the representation of the two Nâgas above the inscription makes it not unlikely, I think, that the goddess intended was a Nâgi. That during the Kushana period there existed temples for the worship of serpents in Northern India, is well attested by the two Mathurâ inscriptions which mention the temple (st [h]ina) of the nigéndra Dadhikarna and a servant at the temple of the same Dadhikarpa (Dadhikarnṇadevikulika).
The most difficult words of the inscription are utarayam navamikayam. I have thought for some time that they might be part of the date and mean 'on the following (i.e. intercalated) ninth (lunar day)', but for two reasons this idea must be given up. Firstly, such a statement would be in the wrong place after étayé purvayé, and secondly, as Professor Kielhorn informs me, uttara is never used in the sense of adhika or dvitiya. The words must therefore be connected with harmyan-datam, and as a form ending in -ayam can hardly be anything else but the locative singular of a stem in ; utara navamika would seem to denote either the locality where the temple was erected or, possibly, the goddess to whom it was dedicated. However, these explanations are far from satisfactory. Neither has navamika the appearance of being the name of a locality, nor does utara navamika in the least sound like the name of a goddess or a Nagi. I am at present unable to solve this difficulty.
II.-MATHURA STONE INSCRIPTION, DATED SAMVAT 74.
This inscription is engraved on a stone-slab discovered by Sir Alexander Cunningham in the Jail Mound at Mathura. It was first edited in 1870, together with facsimiles, by Rajendralala Mitra in the Journ. Beng. As. Soc. Vol. XXXIX. Part I. p. 129, No. 15, and by Dowson in the Journ. Roy. As. Soc. New Ser. Vol, V. p. 183, No. 4. In 1873 Cunningham published it again with a facsimile in the Arch. Surv. Rep. Vol. III. p. 32, No. 8, and in 1904 I. have treated it myself in the Ind. Ant. Vol. XXXIII. p. 106, No. 20. I edit it here again for a special reason. When I was in Oxford in 1905, Professor Hoerale kindly made over to me the collection of impressions, rubbings and drawings of inscriptions formed by him when preparing the second volume of the Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, which was to contain the 'Indo-Scythic' inscriptions. In this collection there is also the impression which I have used for the present edition. It cannot be said to be first-rate and, as unfortunately most of the impressions of this collection, it has been tampered with in some places by pencilling out parts of letters that in the impression itself are more or less effaced. Nevertheless the impression is of the greatest value as shown by the following note written on the margin, probably by General Cunningham himself: The only impression now available.-The stone has been lost at Agra.' Under these circumstances it seemed to me desirable to publish the accompanying reproduction of the impression, which in spite of its shortcomings naturally is far superior to the drawings published hitherto. Professor Hoernle's collection contains besides two facsimiles. The one is an eye-copy in red and blue pencil on a slightly reduced scale, made according to a marginal note by Captain Watis, Royal Engineers, the other is a pencil-tracing on transparent paper, perhaps made from the stone itself, but afterwards gone over with China-ink, blue and red pencil, and practically of no value.
1 [I have some weeks ago examined the original and the á is quite certain.-S. K.]
2 Ep. Ind. Vol. I. p. 390, No. 18; Ind. Ant. Vol. XXXIII. p. 102, No. 13.
Professor Hultzsch writes to me that he is never beless inclined to connect utarayan naramikdyam with the date, but he would take uttara in the sense of uchyamána, upar-likhila, 'above-mentioned."
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