Epigraphia Indica Vol 04

Author(s): E Hultzsch
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 67

34
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. IV.
(L. 164.) "And in accordance with this sentence of Vyasa, this charity has to be protected."
(V. 69.) "A charity founded even by an enemy has to be assiduously protected; for, the enemy alone is an enemy, (but) the charity (is) nobody's enemy."
(L. 166.) "Therefore this charity has to be protected by all."
(V. 70.) The text of the (above) edict (sasana) was composed by the excellent Ayyapillarya, who' obeyed the commands of the glorious prince Prithvisvara.
(L. 168.) (This edict was) written by Kanţâchâri at Sripithapuram, Hail! Hail! Hail!
No. 5.-TAXILA PLATE OF PATIKA.
By G. BUHLER, PH.D., LL.D., C.I.E.
I here re-edit the so-called Taxila copper-plate, published first by Professor Dowson, and again in Mr. Rapson's edition of Dr. Bhagvanlal's paper on the Northern Kshatrapas, according to a photograph, taken by Mr. Griggs for Dr. Fleet, which I have carefully compared with the original.
The plate, which, according to Sir A. Cunningham,3 was found in the village of Thupkia in the middle of the ruins of Sir-Sukh, north-east of Shah-Dhêri or Taxila, is preserved in the library of the Royal Asiatic Society. It measures fourteen inches by three, and weighs 3 ounces. It is broken into three pieces, two large ones, right and left, and a small one fitting in between them. Some portions of the central piece, which is half eaten by verdigris, have been lost. Besides, the left-hand upper and lower corners of the plate are broken off, as well as a small bit of the lower portion of the large right-hand piece.
The letters, the outlines of which are represented by rows of small dots, are in the first four lines on the obverse mostly half an inch long, and in line 5 about one-third of the size of the others. They show the type of the Kharôsthi of the Saka period and closely resemble those on the Mathurâ lion capital. The only differences are that ta and sa occasionally have small loops to the left of the tops instead of curves, and that the i-stroke of mi in Rohinimitrena, 1. 5, has been joined to the right end of the consonant, whereby the sign gains the appearance of a ⚫ stunted ga.
The language is the North-Western or Gandhârian Prakrit, described in my introduction to Dr. Bhagvanlal's interpretation of the Mathurâ lion capital inscriptions. Peculiar are, however, the distinction between the dental and lingual nasals and the use of the anustára, which both are absent in the Mathurâ inseription, as well as the substitution of u for o in the termination of the nominative singular of the masculine, of prachu, i.e. #prachu for práchô, 1. 2, and jau for jao, i.e. jayo. The syntactic construction is very primitive and occasionally faulty; see
the remarks on the translation.
The object of the inscription is to record the solemn deposition of a relic of Sakyamuni and the erection of a samgháráma or monastery at a place called Chhêma (Kshêma) to the north-east of Takhasila, i.e. Takkhasila or Taxila, which Sir A. Cunningham (loc. cit.) has shown to be identical with the modern Sir-Sukh, a site covered with Buddhist ruins. Dr. Bhagvanlal has been the first to recognise that the donor is not, as Professor Dowson thought,
1 Journ. R. As. Soc. Vol. XX. p. 221 ff.; see also Journ. Bengal As. Soc. Vol. XXXII. p. 421. Reports, Vol. II. p. 134, note 1; Vol. V. p. 67.
3 Journ. R. As. Soc. 1894, p. 551 ff.
4 Journ. R. As. Soc. 1894, p. 528 ff.