________________
No. 8.]
NASIK CAVE INSCRIPTIONS.
REMARKS. (1) G. 6; AS. divase 8.- (2) After saha I think I can discern some traces of the syllables bhagine,
TRANSLATION. "Suocess ! On the eth (or 8th) day of the 4th fortnight of winter, in the year 2 of the king, the lord Siri-Pulumai, son of Vásithi, on the above, the husbandman Dhanams has caused this to be made, together with his father and mother, with . . . . .."
Ina = idan, as advocated by Bhagwanlal on the testimony of grammarians, is, as far as I remember, a lonely instance in the language of the caves. But the restoration lena seems to be out of the question.
No.26, Plate viii. (N. 1). On the ruined back wall of the veranda in Cave No. 24.
TEXT. 1 Sidhan Sakasa Damachikasa (1) lekha kasa Vudhikasa 2 Vishnudatapatasa (2) Dasapuravatbavasa lepa po3 dhiyo cha do (3) 2 ato ekâ podhi ya aparadha sa (4) me måtå 4 taro udisa.
REMARKS. (1) G. Dama'.- (2) G. putrasa.-(3) G. de.- (4) G. apara esa ; As. apara[dha] sa. The dh at least seems rather distinct.
TRANSLATION. 4 Success! (The gift) of the Saka Damachika Vudhika, a writer, son of Vishņudata, an inhabitant of Dasapura, the cave and the two-2-cisterns. Out of them the one cistern which has a small opening is on behalf of my father and mother.'
The bearing of Damachika, a clan or district, is entirely unsettled. Bhagwanlal asks if that Saka could not be a Greek from Damascus. This idea is more ingenious than probable. What seems likely is that Vudhika is the personal name of the donor. In spite of its correct look it does not, as a professional name, answer to any known handicraft. I do not think that the man's name, supposing Dåmachika to express it, could have been separated by professional names from the epithets which relate to his descent : Vishnudataputasa, eto. The reading aparadha or aparadhá being most probable, Bhagwanlal's tentative translation, based on another reading and by itself little satisfactory, must be given ap. As to Bühler's interpretation, who takes aparadha adverbially : 'on the west,' such a way of distinguishing two small cisterns excavated near one another seems in itself very unlikely; and to Bühler himself this use of aparadhd appeared rather puzzling as he proposed the reading aparato. The idea which the final dhå suggests is rather that of some adjective or participle connected with yd. We obtain it by reading aparandha (which is hardly & conjecture; for the anusvára may be actually expressed by one of the dots which appear above the head of the r) and explaining the word by alparandhrd, ' with small opening or cavity.' Unfortunately the original state of things has been so altered that any actual verification of the fact is impossible, and we are unable to ascertain which of the two cisterng-the one which bears a special epigraph (N. 27) or the other, which has none, was really characterised by more reduced dimensions.
No. 27, Plate vi. (N. 2). On one of the two cisterns to the right of Cave No. 24.
