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

Page 246

No. 27.] SEVEN BRAHMI INSCRIPTIONS FROM MATHURA AND ITS VICINITY. 203
The inscription which is written in the script preceding that of the Kushan period was read and translated by Bühler as follows:
"1. [na]mo arahato Vardhamanasya Gotiputrasa Pothayasaka
2. kālavāļasa
3. . . . . . .
Kosikiye Simitraye ayagapato pra.i....
Adoration to the Arbat Vardhamana ! A tablet of homage was set up by Sivamitra (of) the Kausika (family), (wife) of Gotiputra (Gauptiputra), a black serpent for the Pothayas and Sakas."
Gotiputra's epithet was explained by Bühler as referring to his fights with the Pothayas and Sakas, in which he proved to them as destructive as the black cobra is to mankind in general. The Pothayas he identified with the Proshthas, who are mentioned in the Mahabharata as a nation of Southern India. Fleet, although agreeing with Bühler in the reading and the literal translation of the epithet, tried to show at great length that by the Sakas were meant the Buddhists and by the Pothayas the Digambara Jainas and that Gotiputra, who himself was a Svetambara Jaina, was marked in the record as being particularly successful in disputation with adherents of those rival creeds.
Many grave objections may be raised against these interpretations, but I deem it unnecessary to enter into a detailed discussion, as in my opinion they are untenable, or at least highly improbable, already for general reasons. An epithet with the meaning assumed by Bühler and Fleet is against the style of these dedicatory inscriptions, which in a formulary language record facts, but refrain from rhetorical embellishments taken from the language of the Kavyas. Secondly, although metronymics are sometimes used instead of personal names, especially in the case of Buddhist saints, I consider it extremely unlikely that in an inscription like this one a private individual should have been called simply by his metronymic. It is far more probable that just as in innumerable other cases the metronymic was followed by the personal name, and there is no reason why Pothayasaka should not be taken as a name formed by compounding the abbreviated form of the asterism Proshṭhapada and yasas, or rather their Prakrit equivalents, and adding the suffix -ka. Personal names the first member of which is the name of a nakshatra are very common in the period to which the inscription belongs. Potha itself occurs in Pothaghosha in the Mathura inscription No. 59, Poṭhadeva in the Sanchi inscription No. 205 and the hypocoristic form Pothaka in the Sanchi inscription No. 342. For yasas as the second member of a compound name we have in epigraphical records Krishnayasa in the Kanhiara inscription No. 8, Dhamayasa (fem.) in the Sanchi inscription 410, Sivayasa (fem.) and Phaguyasa in the Mathura inscription No. 100 and Bhadrayasa in the Mathura inscription No. 107. As Phagu is a shortened form of Phalguni and Bhadra an abbreviation of Bhadrapada, the last two names are almost exact counterparts of Pothayasaka in our inscription.
If we take Pothayasaka as the name of the husband of Simitra, we are driven to the conclusion that the original reading was Pothayasakasa and that kalavalasa is an independent word characterising Pothayasaka somehow or other. I think that this is fully confirmed by an examination of the outward appearance of the inscription.
The inscription is damaged both at the beginning and at the end. On the left side a piece of the stone is broken off, which has caused the partial loss of the na in the beginning of the upper line and the complete disappearance of three aksharas in the beginning of the lower line. Here
* Read Sivamitraye. * [Bühler: ayagapato (misprint).]
1 Restore bhäryäye. Restore pratishthapito.