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No. 30.]
TAXILA VASE INSCRIPTION.
299
The inscription is engraved round a steatite vase, which was formerly kept in the Museum at Peshawar and is now in the Central Museum, Lahore. Nothing is known about its origin. Cunningham, it is true, was inclined to identify it with a vase said to be found by the villagers in one of the Stapas near Shahpur ; but this is nothing but a mere guess.
The inscription was first edited, together with a facsimile, in 1863 by J. Dowson in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. XX. p. 24, and Plate iii. fig. 2. In the same year Cunningham published his version in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. XXXII. p. 151, and added a correction ibid. p. 172. Cunningham's readings were criticised by Dowson, ibid. p. 428. In 1871 Cunningham edited the record again, with a facsimile, in his Archeological Survey Reports, Vol. II. p. 125, and Plate lix. The present edition is based on excellent impressions and photographs, sent to me, at the request of Dr. Vogel, by Mr. Ram Singh, Officiating Curator of the Central Museum, Lahore.
TEXT, Sihilena Siharachhiteņa cha bhratarehi Takhasilae ayam thuyo pratithavito savabadhana puyae.
TRANSLATION By the brothers Sihila (Simhila) and Siharachhita (Simharakshita) this Stûpa was erected at Takhasila (Takshasila) in honour of all the Buddhas.
REMARKS. The characters, which vary in size from " to ", take an intermediate position between those of the Asoka edicts and those of the later Kushan inscriptions. From the latter they are easily distinguished by the absence of the cursive element so strongly predominant there. The differences from the Asöka characters are less numerous and less marked; but the la with its hook bent down and rounded and the sa with its vertical shortened at the top show clearly later forms than the corresponding letters at Shahbâzgarhi and Mansehra. The type of the characters is thus the same as that of the Taxila copper-plate of Patika, and this fact seems to me decisive for the transliteration of the only nasal occurring in the present inscription. From a grammatical point of view it might appear more natural to read Sihilena, Siharachhitena and savabudhana; but as the copper-plate inscription discriminates between na and na, and as the sign for the lingual used there is identical with the sign found in the present inscription, we cannot but assume that the latter also represents a lingual na. The copper-plate also furnishes one instance of n instead of Sanskrit n in the word Sakamunisa (1.3). Whether this spelling reflects the actual pronunciation, or whether the North-Western dialect possessed but one - sound, expressed in writing sometimes by the sign for the lingual, sometimes by that for the dental, I do not venture to decide at present, although the second alternative seems to me the more probable one.
In the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1906, p. 453, Mr. Thomas has endeavoured to show that the inscription is composed in an unknown metre. He considers the whole text to be one stanza divided into two rhyming lines, each line consisting of five feet of five matrás with a concluding spondee. According to him the text, with the long vowels and double consonants expressed in writing, would run: Sihilens Siharachchhitêua cha
bhratarehi Tak khasilað ayam thQvo pratitthåvito
savvabuddhâna půyat It appears at once that the regularity of the metre is less great than supposed by Mr. Thomas. His scansion is based on the wrong readings Gihilena and bhatarehi. The correct readings Sihilona, which can only stand for Sihilena, and bhratarehi would imply that
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