Epigraphia Indica Vol 24

SR No.: 032578
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1937
Total Pages: 472
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 22 MB

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EPIGRAPHA INDICA.
[VOL. XXIV
the time of Sodass and representing Baladevs and four of his brothers or companions and therefore being probably much alike in appearance. There are actually found at Mörā images of three maale persons. The torsos of two of them show that they were very similar in attitude and dress and certainly represented not foreigners as, e.g., the three Māt statues, but some Hindu personages. They are, moreover, as far as I can judge from the photographs, of superior workmanship and, being carved in the round, oannot be assigned to a later date than the Kushān period, but may be considerably earlier. The identity of the statues and the patichaviras which thus becomes highly probable, would be finally established, if the fragments had been found in the ruins of the sailadevagriha, where, according to the inscription, the pafchaviras were set up. But, as already remarked above, there is no trace whatever of a stone temple. The images were found lying round about the remains of a building constructed of bricks, but I do not think that for this reason the identity of the statues and the pafichaviras is to be given up. There is no positive evidence that the statues were ever set up within that brick enclosure. It can be easily imagined that at the time when the temple was demolished and its materials were carried away, the statues also were cut up and thrown aside. Dr. Vogel himself seems to have changed his mind. He is now inclined to look at the statues as Yaksha images. In my opinion they have a better claim to be regarded as the images of the Vrishni heroes, although I admit that this view cannot be definitely proved at present.
There is still one point that nequires alucidation, viz., the word Toshāyāḥ in line 3 of the in. scription. I have stated already in the notes on the text that there is no reason to doubt the correctness of the reading. Judging from the context Toshāyā) can hardly be anything else but the genitive of Tosha dependent on the following grihan. At first sight one would obviously understand the house of Tosha' as a shrine dodioatod to a goddess called Toshā, but I am not aware that there ever existed a goddess of that name. Under these circumstances, Toshă can only be taken as the name of the lady who caused the shrine to be built. Just as we find here sailaṁ griham combined with the name of the founder in the genitive case, we have mahārājasya rājātirājasya decaputrasya Huvishlasya share in the Mathura inscription No. 62 of my List, or acharyya - Somatrā tasy=edam Bhagavatpädopayojyam kundam=uparyy-āvasathah kundan ch=āparann in the Tukam rock inscription (GI. No. 67). Toshā does not sound like an Indian name. It is quite probable that Toshā was of Iranian extraction, and there would be nothing strange about the fact that she should have erected a Bhagavata shrine as we know from the Heliodoros inscription at Bēsnagar that foreigners were adherents of the Bhagavata religion. We shall probably find the name of Toshā in a different spelling again in the following inscription.
II.-Insoription on tho pedestal of a female statue from Mörk. The inscription is incised on the pedestal of a standing female figure which was discovered by Dr. Vogel at Mörk together with the remnants of the three statues discussed above. The image is now in the Mathura Museum. The inscription was edited by Vogel, Cat. Arch. Mus. Mathurā, p. 109, No. E 20 It is figured ASI.AR. 1911-12 [Part II], Plate LVIII, fig. 19.
1 Perhaps this statement has to be modified. Mr. V. 8. Agravala writes: " I inspected the Mori sites with 1.30 Bahadur K. N. Dilshit th November 1936.......... Dr. Lüders' remark that there is no positive evidence that the statues were ever set up within the brick enclosure does not seem to be grounded in fact. From actual inspection of the site we found that the images were set up at that very place, since there still exists in situ the abone pedestal in which the frages were om hedded. Mr. Devi Dayal took a photo of this part of the building and also measured the mortise cut into the stone which once received the image." It is not quite clear from this state. nent vhether the five statues were all embedded in one pedestal and whether the measurement of the mortise can be shown to meet one of tho Panchaviru statues or perhape that of the Toshs image.
• Sculpture de Mathura, p. 116.