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394
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
by Kobikt Si[va]mitra, (the wife] of Gotiputra, a black serpent for the Poţhayas and Sakas. Both Gotiputra and Kosikt Sivamitra were of noble or royal descent. That is indicated by their family names. Kosiki, in Sanskrit Kausiki, means she of the race of Kusika. Kausiks is the nomen gentile of Visva mitra and of his descendants, the Viávamitras, who form one of the ancient Vedic gotras. Numerous instances in the northern and southern inscriptions show that the queens and princesses were frequently called by the Vedio gotra-names, such as the Gautami, the Vatsi, the V Asishthi, the Gargi, eto. And the explanation is no doubt that these gotras originally were those of the Purohitas of the royal or noble families, from which the queens were descended, and that the kings were affiliated to them for religious reasons, as the Srautasútras indicate. It seems, therefore, impossible to explain the epithet Kośiki otherwise than by the assumption that Siva mitra was descended from a royal race, which had been affili. ated to the Kausikas. With respect to Gotiputra, in Sanskrit Gauptiputra, it may be pointed out that this name, which means the son of her of the Gaupta race, is borne by the second king of Sir A. Cunningham's inscription on the Torana of the Bharhut Stúpa, where we read' Gotipulrasa Agarajusa putena, in Sanskrit Gaupliputrasya Angdra. dyutah putrena. Though I am not prepared to identify the two Gotiputras, it is evident that the name was borne at least by one royal or princely personage. The epithet of our Gotiputra, a black serpent for the Pothayas and Sakas,' points also to his belonging to the warrior tribe. For, according to the analogy of other well-known epithets, such as vairimattebhasimha, it can only mean that he fought with the Poţhayas and Sakas and proved to them as destructive as the black cobra is to mankind in general. The Sakas are sufficiently well known. The Pothayas are the Proshthas, whom the Mahabharata, VI, 9, 61, and the Vishnupurdna (ed. Hall), vol. II, p. 179, name among the southern nations. In the latter passage they appear together with the Sakas and the Kokarakas. As both works include in their enumeration of the southern nations the Trigartas, who are known to be inhabitants of Northern India, the accuracy of their statements with respect to the seats of the Sakas and Proshţhas may be doubted. But it remains interesting that the two names are placed closely together in the Vishnupurána, and this juxtaposition is, as our inscription shows, not without foundation. The wars, to which it alludes, may have occurred either before the Skythians conquered Mathurâ, i.e. before the time of Kanishka, or when their domination had passed away. The letters of the inscriptions, which are particularly old-fashioned and may belong to the first century B. C., speak in favour of the first alternative. If the inscription was incised before the Skythian conquest, it also furnishes valuable testimony for the antiquity of the Jaina temple in which it was found.
In the epithet Tevanika of the donor Naṁdighosha, mentioned in No. XXXV, we bave probably a derivative from the name of a nation or country called Trivarņa or Traivarna. I conclude this from the fact that one of the queens in the old Pabhos& inscriptions is called Tevaņi, the Traivarņa' (prince88).
The new inscriptions finally furnish confirmation of some of the curious words and constructions noticed ante, pp. 373f. In No. XXXI, we have again the abnormal expression
Bee Indian Antiquary, vol. XIV, p. 138f.
Angdradyut meus shining like the planet Mars,' i.e. being us harmful for his enemies in the baleful ligbt of dagdraka.
Pohaga corresponde literally with Preshthaka or Proshthiya
