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 252

No. 27.) SEVEN BRAHMI INSCRIPTIONS FROM MATHURA AND ITS VICINITY. 207
As regards Ulāna's titles, mahädandanāyaka occurs again in the Mathurā inscription No. 60 of Sam 74. In my edition of the record I read in 11. 6ff. mahadänddayakasya Vālinasya, but the true reading appears to be Valānasya, and Valāna and Ulāna being evidently only different spellings of the same name, it is quite possible that the general mentioned in that inscription is identical with the person represented by the statue. The title visvasaka is found in slightly different spellings in several Mathurā inscriptions of the Kushān period. Nos. 127, 128 and 141 record gifts of the visvasika or visvasika Vakamibira, No. 1259 a gift of the visvasika Asyala or Susyala. It will be noticed that the title is only borne by persons who by their names are shown to be of foreign descent. Perhaps the correct form of the title is visvāsika. In the Divyāvadāna p. 188 it is said of a certain Brāhmaṇa : sa rājña Prasenajitā Kausalena hastimadhyasy=opari viśvāsikah sthāpitaḥ, but here also visvāsikaḥ is not warranted by the manuscripts which write either visvāsikaḥ or visvāśikah. Yamashaheka, provided the word has been read 'correctly, would seem to be a foreign title or a local designation, though I cannot suggest anything as to its meaning. But whatever his functions may have been the title of mahādandanāyaka certainly shows that Ulāna was a high cfficial, and the present inscription, although it is badly preserved and its original place is not known, is yet of great importance as proving that during the Kushān period not only kings, but also dignitaries of lesser rank were honoured by statues. As shown by the following inscription, the statue of Ulāna is not an isolated case.
VI.-Inscription on the base of a male figure from Mathurā. The inscription, as stated by Vogel, is incised on the base of a male figure, standing, clad in the Indo-Scythian dress : tunic, trousers and boots. He holds a bunch of lotus-flowers in his right hand and an indistinct object in his left. The head is lost. The image was found in a bāghicha on the Brindāban road about 14 miles from Mathură. It is at present in the Mathuri Museum. The inscription is in a very bad state of preservation, and only the date of the year was read by Vogel, Cat. Arch. Mus. Mathurā, p. 110, No. E25. The statue is figured JRAS. 1911, Plate VIII, fig. 2.
TEXT. 1 sa[va]tsarā(4) 70 2(*) h(e) ...... s(e)(*) pratha(me) 2.................... rṇasya(*) pratimā)
NOTES (1) The a-sign of ra is pretty distinct. After rā there is a long vertical stroke, apparently caused by a fissure in the stone. (2) The first figure is not quite distinct. Vogel took it to be 40, but it is more probable that it is 70. The second figure is probably 2. (3) The e-sign of h(e) and 8(e), if they were originally engraved, are entirely obliterated. The word was certainly meant for hemantamise. (4) Before rṇasya about ten aksharas are illegible.
REMARKS Although only one complete word and two numerical signs can be read with tolerable certainty. the inscription, in conjunction with the complementary evidence furnished by the dress of the statue, allows us to affirm that, probably in the year 72 of the Kushān era, in the first month of winter the statue of a foreigner, whose name ended in -rna, was set up at Mathura. The custom of erecting portrait statues seems to have been in vogue among the foreign chiefs at Mathura
1 Ep. Ind., Vol. IX, p. 242.