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No. 17.)
TWO INSCRIPTIONS OF TAMMUSIDDHI.
113
and by the European. Large and round limbs were considered characteristics of a mahápurusha, and every traveller in India will get the impression that this is the case even now.
Most probably the third word in both inscriptions indicates the caste or clan of the person mentioned. Among the meanings assigned to the word meda by the St. Petersburg Dictionary there is that of a certain mixed caste.' But this explanation would have to be abandoned, if with Cunningham we read madamgisya. It is true that the a-stroke is ordinarily attached to the right, not to the left leg of the m; but, on the other hand, we never find the e-stroke turned to the right. Comparing the manner in which the a-stroke is attached to p, & and h, we musi consider Cunningham's reading correct. Unfortunately madangisya is as difficult to explain as medangisya. If we ignore the in the penultimate syllable, it would correspond to the Sanskrit Batangasya; but that a member of this caste would be the owner of a garden and bear the name of Křishọayasas is scarcely admissible.
It was stated above that one of the two masgalas added to the Br&hmi legend is the svastika, The other Cunningham interpreted as an abbreviation of the syllable ôm. This, however, does not seem very probable considering that that sacred syllable is always found at the beginning. nerer at the close of a sentence. But when we compare the two inscriptions in this respect. we discover a remarkable resemblance between the two margalas also. The mystic sign of the Kanhiara inscription appears to be nothing but an ornamental development of the foot-print. It would be hazardous to draw from these signs any conclusions with regard to the creed of the authors. It is true that the foot-print and the svastika are favourite signs of good omen with the Buddhists; but it should be borne in mind that they are equally honoured by the Hind ûs in general and probably were so even in pre-Buddhistic times.
One point still remains to be discussed, -the language. In the older inscription it is Prakrit or Middle-Indian of the Saurasôni-Maharashtri, not of the Magadhi type, as appears from the r in pukkharini. In the Kanhiâra inscription there is a difference of language in the two legends. The Kharðshthi legend is written in a Prakrit of which the distinction made between the three sibilants is a remarkable feature. The language of the Brahmi legend would best be characterised as Sansksitised Praksit, such as came into vogue among the Northern Buddhists with the rise of the Mahayana system. Thus linguistic evidence also would assign to this inscription the same time of origin as was found probable in view of palæographie considerations. That Cunningham was wrong in calling the language simply Sanskřit scarcely needs to be demonstrated.
No. 17.-TWO INSCRIPTIONS OF TAMMUSIDDHI;
SAKA-SAMVAT 1129.
BY H. LÜDERS, PH.D.; GÖTTINGEN. The first of the following two stone inscriptions is engraved on the east wall of the Nataraja shrive in the Vaţåranyèsvara temple at Tiruvalangaļu, 3 miles N.-N.-E. of the Chinnamapet Railway Station in the North Arcot district. The second is on the north wall of the central shrine of the Vachiśvara temple at Tiruppasûr, 2 miles W.-S.-W. of Tiruvallûr in the Tiruvallûr tâluka of the Chingleput district. They are now edited for the first time from inked estampages supplied to me by Dr. Hultzsch.
1 A. Grünwedel, Buddhistische Kunst is Indies, sec. ed. (1900), p. 138. - See Professor Pischel's Grammatik der Pralrit-Sprachen (1900), p. 24. # Nos. 403 and 407 of the Goverument Epigraphist's collection for the year 1896.
