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88
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
Kosambi. According to Childers, Pali Dictionary (sub voce dussa), it was customary with the Buddhists to spread white cloths on the seats prepared for the reception of distinguished monks. It is this mark of honour which both versions order to be shown to the monks and nuns visiting the sacred places. The concluding sentence of the Sanchi version, which probably was omitted on the Allahabad Pillar, may mean either that the king wishes the tenets (mage) of the Buddhist monks to exist for a long time, or that he desires the visits of the faithful to the sacred places to continue for a long time. The wording of this inscription shows the peculiar breadth which the Beloved of the Gods affects in his edicts, and we have the phrases, familiar to every reader of the latter," for it is my wish" and "that ... may endure for a long time." Finally, it must be pointet out that chilathitika, instead of which the dialect of Malvå would have required chirat. 'ika, as well as the final e of the masculine nominative singular mage, is a Magadhism, and that (as already stated by Sir A. Cunningham) the letters of the Sànchi version show the type of Asoka's Rock and Pillar edicts. This inscription furnishes, therefore, the proof that the pillar at the South Gate, on which it has been found, dates from Asoka's times. It, further, permits us to infer that those inscriptions on the railings of the Stapa, which show the same characters, belong to an equally early period. The latter inference agrees with Sir A. Cunningham's views, who, besides, has assigned the inscriptions on the gateway to much later times. According to his opinion all the latter documents belong to the first century A.D., because their characters are of the same type as his No. 190, which records a donation of Vasithiputa Ânamda, avesani or foreman of the artisans of king Siri-Satakaại. Identifying this Såtakaņi with the third king of the Andhra dynasty, Sir A. Cunningham assigns to him, in accordance with Professor H. H. Wilson's calculations, the years 19-37 A.D., and thus places the date of Ânamda's inscription in the beginning of the first century of our era. Though I fully agree with Sir A. Cunningham in considering the Satakaņi of his No. 190 to be the third Andhra king of the Pauråņik lists, I must differ from him regarding the date. The characters of his inscription No. 190, as well of the others on the Sanchi gateway, are in my opinion much earlier than the first century of our era. They are almost identical with those of the Nanaghåț inscriptions, and differ only slightly from the type of the characters of Asoka's times. It deserves also to be noted that among the inscriptions of the Seth Någapiya two, our Nos. 85 (=C. 182) and C. 192, are in the later characters, while one, our No. 7 (= C. 13) on Stupa No. II, shows the same characters as Aboka's inscriptions. Such a vacillation is easily explicable, if Nagapiya lived in the second century B.C. But it is difficult to understand on the supposition that his donations were made two centuries later. Further, there is another important argument, which makes it probable that the first Siri-Satakani of the Andhra dynasty ruled, not after the beginning of our era, but about the middle of the second century B.C. I can only agree with Dr. Bhagvanlal' in identifying the first Andhra Satakaại with the Satakani, whom Khåravela, king of Kalinga, protected in the second year of his reign. The
• Bhilsa Topes, pp. 271 ff. Sir A. Canningham's assertion that the occurrence of the name Gotiputra (in our No. 48) possesses a great value for determining the age of the railing, is of course no longer tenable. Correctly interpreted, Gotiputra, in Sanskrit Gauptiputra, means only that the royal scribe Subahita was the son of a lady of the Gota or Gaupta race. It by no means follows that be was the same person as the Goti or Gauti who bore the famous Buddhist teacher of Aboka's times.
7 Actes du sixième Congrès int. des Orient., vol. III, 2, p. 146. Dr. Bhagvanlal, who assumes that the Maurya era began with Adoka's conquest of Kalinga, fixes the beginning of Satakani's reign in 98 B.C.
