________________
182
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. VIII.
Kushana period and calls for no particular remarks. But it may be noted that in bhikhuniye (1. 2) we have the Prakrit form instead of the usual bhikshuni, and that the gen. sing. of feminine nonns ending in i retains the long i in bhikshuniye (1. 1), bhagineyiye, bhikhuniye, Dhanavatiye (1.2); the corresponding vowel of antevúsin[i]ye (1.1) is doubtful. The later Prakrit form pratithavito (1.2) seems certain.
The inscription records that a Bodhisattva was set up by the nun Dhanavati, the sister's daughter of the nun Buddhamitra, who knew the Tripitaka, a female disciple (antevasini) of the monk Bala, who knew the Tripitaka. There can be no doubt as to the identity of this monk with the monk Bala mentioned in the Set-Ma het and Sarnath inscriptions, and the three inscriptions thus cannot be far removed from each other in date. The Mathura inscription refers itself to the reign of Huvishka, the year 33, the 8th day of the 1st month of summer. However, the Set-Mahet inscription, like that from Sårnâtb, probably belongs to the reign of Kanishka and is somewhat earlier than the Mathurå inscription, which records a gift by the sister's daughter of the nan Buddhamitrå, whose name occurs already in the third year of Kanishka in connection with the name of Bala, the donor of the Sârnâth statue.
The Mathurå statue, like those from Sârnâth and Set-Mahet, is called a Bodhisattva. Unfortunately nothing but its lower part, showing the crossed legs of a seated figure, is preserved (see the accompanying Plate). The place where the statue was set up seems to have been [M&jdh[u]ravaņaka, the first part of which may have been derived from Madhura or Mathura, the name of the town where the statue actually has been found.
TEXT. 1 Maharajasya devaputrasya Huv[i]shkasya sam 30 3 gril di 8
bhikshusya Balasya trepitakasya antev[&]s[i]n[i]ye bhikshuniye trepitikalye
Buddhamitryo 2 bhàgineyiye bhikhuniye Dhanavatiye Bodhisatvo pratithavito [Ma]dh[u]ravanake
saha måtâpitihi . . . . . . . . . .
TRANSLATION. In the year 33 of the Maharaja, the Dêvaputra Huvishka, on the 8th day of the Ist summer (month), a Bodhisattvs was set up at (M&jdh[u]ravaņaka by the nun Dhanavati, the sister's daughter of the nun Buddhamitra, who knows the Tripitaka, a female pupil of the monk Bala, who knows the Tripitaka, together with her mother and father . . . . :
No. 19.- DHULIA PLATES OF KARKARAJA; SAKA-SAMVAT 701.
BY D. R. BHANDARKAR, M.A. The plates which bear the subjoined grant were found deposited in the record room of the Collector's kachéri at Dhulia, Khandesh District, Bombay Presidency. They were sent for inspection to Mr. H. Cousens, who has kindly asked me to publish a paper on the inscription. A summary of it has already appeared in the Progress Report of the Archeological Survey of Western India for the year ending 30th June 1904, p. 60.
She occurs again in Sarnath No. III. a, 1. 7. From the original stone and from paper-impressions kindly supplied by Dr. Vogel. The quantity of the last i is uucertain.
