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366
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
XXXI. FURTHER INSCRIPTIONS FROM SÂNCHI.'
BY G. BÜHLER, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E.
In the course of a tour through Eastern Rajputana and the Central India Agency in March 1893, Dr. A. Führer again visited the famous Stupas of Sânchi, recté in Sanskrit Kâkanada or in Prakrit Kå kanava (see I, No. 378) and took impressions of those inscriptions which had not been found on his former visit. He also used the opportunity to clear away the rubbish round the two Stupas and to make a few excavations. As in all former cases, his operations have yielded highly satisfactory results. The fragment of the Asoka inscription has been recovered; the number of the small donative inscriptions has risen, if all the fragments and almost effaced pieces are counted, to nearly 500, against Sir A. Cunningham's 240. Finally, a valuable Indo-Skythian inscription has turned up on the base of a statue of Buddha, and in a similar position have been found two inscriptions in later characters, the latest of which shows the Någari of the 9th or 10th century A.D. These new finds prove that the Stupas were visited by Buddhist pilgrims both during the interval between the times of the early Andhras and of the Guptas, and long after the latter had passed away. Moreover, the late Nagari inscription may also be considered to furnish additional evidence for the fact that Buddhism survived in India until very late times, long after the period when the stupid legends allege it to have been drowned in a deluge of blood. The recovery of the fragment of the Aśoka edict does not quite fulfil the expectations which I thought might be reasonably entertained. I am not able to decipher the whole or even to suggest a complete plausible restoration of the portion with which I declined to meddle in my former article. But I am able to settle two points. First, the two signs indistinctly visible in the beginning cannot have formed part of the word devanam, nor can the word piya have followed. The first sign of the line, which, counting from below, I number as line 7, has been lost, the second is illegible, and the third is either yam or yam. The ya is plain and certain, and so is the Anusvåra, but the vowel is doubtful. The next consonant is certainly bha, and the syllable probably was bhe. This is suffi cient to prove that line 7 does not contain the beginning of the edict, but that a probably not inconsiderable piece has been lost at the top.
Secondly, at the end of line 7 stand not only, as Sir A. Cunningham has stated (Bhilsa Topes, p. 260), the letters mag, but mage, and after it quite distinctly kate. This new reading removes the possibility that the Samgha of Magadha can be mentioned or addressed. The words mean, without a doubt, "a road has been made." The next line 6 tells us for whom this road was intended. The first sign has again been lost. Next follows a fairly distinct khu, and after two indistinct signs the syllable bhi. The two following consonants have been lost in a large abrasion, to the right of which the vowel í appears and immediately after it nam. Then comes an indistinct sign and next ti. Thus, we obtain-. khu . . bhi.. inam. ti. It is almost certain that the reading was bhikhunam vá bhikhunínam vá ti, and that the road was prepared for the monks and the nuns of the Buddhist order. A comparison of the phrase at the end
1 Continued from ante, p. 87.
In his letter Dr. Führer states that it is now lying in the jungle. It is on a frustum of a stambha or pillar which probably stood near the Southern gate, and might be placed in
some museum in order to keep it safe. See place of facsimiles. About thirty very small fragments and illegible inscriptions have not been transcribed.
