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THREE NEW KUSHĀNA INSCRIPTIONS FROM MATHURA.*
By Shri, K. D. Bajpai. M. A.. Curator, Archacological Museum, Mathura.
Recently three new inscriptions have been acquired from the Mathura City and have been deposited in the local Archaeological Museum. All the three are Jaina inscriptions and are incised on the pedestals of Tirthankara images. They are all in the Brahms script of the Kushåņa period and their language is the well-known mixed Sanskrit, found on a number of Kushāņa inscriptions from Mathura.
1. The first of the three inscriptions is engraved on a frag. mentary image of Vardhamana seated in the Dhyānamudrā. But for the lower portion of the image, it is badly damaged. In the relief on the pedestal is shown the worship of a dharmachakra.
The portion above and below the relief were each inscribed with one line of writing. Out of them the lower line is completely broken. The upper line also is not well-preserved. Only a few letters in the beginning are discernible. Fortunately in this line the date of the inscription is safe. The reading is as follows :
स्य वढेमानस्य स ६०२५२ दि........... The inscription thus refers to the establishment of an image of Vardhamana or Mahavira in the 2nd month of the summer of the Saka year 92 (=170 A. D) The name etc. of the donor have been lost. The year 92 falls in the reign of Kushâņa king Vasudeva whose last year, as known from inscriptions, is 98 (=176 A. D.)
II. The second inscription is incised on a broken pedestal (7" x 6"). The original complete pedestal seems to have been twice as large The Tirthankara image is completely broken and except ting a lion's head in the right corner and one female devotee all of the front relief is also lost.
The inscription contains three lines of writing. The last line is almost effaced, only a few letters being partly visible there. The
*Read before the XV All India Oriental Conference, Bombay, 1949.
