Epigraphia Indica Vol 33

SR No.: 032587
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1959
Total Pages: 514
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 29 MB

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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXXIII Or, should we think that ti intended word is Siva-syujyāya ? Siva-sayujya is of course 'communion with the god Siva', or a brorption into Siva'. Sayujya is the last of the four grades or states of mukti or beatitude, the three others being sālokya (being in the same world as the god to whom one is devoted), sāmipya (nearness to the object of devotion), and sārūpya (assimilation to or conformity with the deity), to which some authorities add sārshți (equality in rank or condition or power with the deity). If this emendation is accepted, Dāmappa no doubt believed that his devotion to the goddess Trailökya vijaya would lead to his communion with Siva. The association of Trailökyavijaya and Siva again would suggest that the goddess was conceived as the Sakti of the god.
There is no goddess named Trailokyavijaya in the Hindu or Buddhist pantheon. In the lexicons, the expression trailokyavijayā in the feminine is recognised only in the sense of a sort of hemp from which an intoxicating infusion is prepared'. But the name of the goddess reminds us of the Buddhist god Trailökya vijaya whose conception is associated with the Buddhist attempt to humiliate the Hindu deities Siva and Parvati. This god is represented as blue-coloured, fourfaced and eight-armed and as exhibiting the Vajrahuňkära-mudra (i.e. with the wrists of the principal hands crossing at the breast, an attitude indicating intensity) with the hands holding the bell and thunderbolt, as carrying in the three other right hands the khafänga (a staff with a skull at the top), goad and arrow and in the three other left hands the bow, noose and thunderbolt, as standing in the pratyālidha attitude (ie. with the left foot advanced and the right drawn back) with garments of various colours, and as trampling on the head of Siva with his left foot and the breasts of Gauri or Pärvati with the right. Trailökyavijaya was probably conceived by the Buddhists as the Sakti of the god Trailokya vijaya even though she may not have enjoyed wide popularity. But our inscription may also suggest that in the early medieval period the goddess was already identified with Gauri or Pärvati, the consort of Siva. The case may thus be similar to such other Buddhist deities as Tārā. The inscription would then, along with others like the Nārāyanpur Vinayaka image inscription of the fourth regnal year of the Pāla king Mahipāla (probably Mahipala I, c. 992-1040 A.D.), give an indication as to how the Buddhist masses were gradually absorbed into the Brahmanical society. The Nārāyanpur inscription records the installation of a Brahmanical deity by a follower of the Buddhist faith. Whether the nature of our inscription is Buddhist, or semi-Bud lhist, the region around Chandil appears to have come once under the influence of Buddhism.
TEXT 1 Sri-bhagavatya[m] Ttrailökyavijayan Dāmappa[h*] ba(sa)tata[m] bhakti-bhāvētisti)shţhati
[[*] nā[ma]-saranai? > pra[työkshal' jit-āñjalim=ashthanga sira sã yõjyä pata[m] praņamāni 1Bhögullasya
su(su)ta 13-Dāmappēna 3 dēvakula[m*) sthāpitaṁ(tam ||
Cf. Sabdakalpadruma, S. v. sayujyan.
Soe Sadhanamala, 0.0.8., p. 511, No. 202; B. Bhattacharya, Indian Doldhist Iconography, pp. 146-47; A. Cotty, Gods of Northern Buddhism, pp. 114.16.
Ind. C'HU., Vol. IX, pp. 121 ff. Fron an impression. Read ovijayāyām.
Detter read bharona. ? Bettor read smaranál.
Read pratyakshan. The akshara oh tha is written below the line. Read krit-anjali s-doh tangan. 1. The intended reading may be sirası yõjyüm (or sa inyoya) or Siva-sayujyaya. 11 Read patan. 1. Tho punctuation mark is indicated by a risarya-like sign.
1Better Bhögulla-suta or Bhögullaaya sutēna; but såpēksha-samadas aro quito common in the epigraphio litora. lure of India. Sec Select Inscriptions, pp. 175, note 6; p. 179; p. 278, note 3, etc.