Epigraphia Indica Vol 20

SR No.: 032574
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1929
Total Pages: 188
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 40 MB

Page 53

EPIGRATHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XX.
Asian countries are seen bringing to the images of the Buddha at Kasia in the Gorakhpur district or at Bödh-Gaya and other sacred places even now.
The remaining persons spoken of in the prasasti are the monk Purpņēndrasēne and the two poets who composed it. Whether the former belonged to Nälandā itself or to some other locality is not definitely stated in the record but it does not look improbable that he was one of the great teachers of Nālandā itself. Of the two authors of the composition Svāmidatta is described as a prathita-karanika, i.e., & celebrated officer in charge of documents. No particulars are given about the joint author, namely, Silachandra.
As to the identity of Nālandă no remarks are needed, for it is too well-known to require any. A few points about this locality, however, seem to be worth mentioning here. The first is its designation which is certainly Nālandā (ending in long vowel, 1.e. a) and not Nālenda fending in short vowel, i.e. a) as is sometimes erroneously supposed to be. The name ending in the long vowel not only occurs in this and other inscriptions but in litetatare also, both Buddhist as well as Jains. I am not aware if the locality figures in Brahmanical literature at all. It goes back to the time of Mahāvira, the twenty-fourth Jina, and of Gautama Buddha, i.e., at least five centuries before the birth of Christ. The Jains account: would show that it was a very prosperous and sacred bāhirikā or suburb of Rajagriha where Mahāvirs spent fourteen chăturmäsyas. Early Buddhist literature also testifies to its pristine glory. But it looks curious that in neither of them it figures as a university of centre of learning. Possibly it grew as such later, i.e., about the period when the great pilgrim of China, namely, Hiuen Tsiang, came to study there. The description of the charityas or vihāras, the präsādas or devālayas, etc., as given in this interesting document, however, would show that the pilgrim's description of its splendour must have been based on facts.
1 The name ending in the short vowel, i.e., a, is given in C. I.I., Vol. III, p. 210, Buddhist Records of the Western World, pp. 167, etc., and The Life of Nagarjuna from Tibetan and Chinese Sources by M. Walloser (Reprint from Asia Major, Hirth Anniversary Volume, Leipzig, pp. 15, etc.).
* (1) Soo Satrakritanga, 7th Lecture (Chapter on Nalanda), of the Second Book.
Tenam kälenath tenam samaenan Rayagibe nāmam nayare hotthă riddhipphita samiddhe tanpao java padir ve tasranath Rayaglhna nayarak bahiyā uttara-puratthime disrbie etthapat Nalathdin mata bibiriye bottha apogabhavanaska yasannivitthā jāva padirůva | 1 |
(2) Kalpasūtra of Bhadrabahu (ed. H. Jacobi), Leipzig, 1879, p. 64, pars. 122. Rayagihan nagaram Nålardati cha babiriyam. (3) The Parvadesachaityaparipass which was composed by Pandita Harhraðms in V. 8. 1566 And he lately
been published in the Yalovijaya-Jainagranthamala, Bhivanagara (Kathiawad) says Nálamdai pādai chauda-chaumasa sunijai Hauda lokaprasiddha to Badagams kahijai
Solaprisidatihah achchhai Jinabimbanamijal. (4) The Sammelalikharatirthamala is more explicit. It records
Bāhiri Nalando pado Sunayo taa punyapavado Vira chaudatahi chaumes Hauda Badagamma nivisa
Bimhudehare ekaso pratima navilahi I Bodhani ganima.
References to Buddhist works are several and 1 have dealt with them in the paper which I mad before the All-Indio Oriental Conference at Labore in 1928. (Proceedinge, Fifth Indian Oriental Conference, Vol. I. pp. 386 ff.). Hero I may allude to Majjhima-Nikaya, Vol. I, p. 377.
"Tash kish mafifiasi gahapati : Ayath Nilandā iddha ch'evs phita oba babujana Akinna-mana ti." Evam bhante, ayath Nalanda iddhi ch'ova pbita cha bahojani ilinna-mantel tu.'