Epigraphia Indica Vol 08

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

Page 90

No. 8.]
NASIK CAVE INSCRIPTIONS.
causes one-hundred-thousand Brâhmaṇas to be fed the (whole) year round, who has given eight wives to Brahmaņas at the religious tirtha of Prabhasa, who at Bharukachha, Dasapura, Govardhana and Sorpdraga has given the shelter of quadrangular rest-houses, who has made wells, tanks and gardens, who has out of charity established free ferries by boats on the Iba, Parada, Damana, Tapi, Karabend and Dahanuka, and erected on both banks of these rivers shelters for meeting and sach for gratuitous distribution of water, who has given thirty-twothousand stems of cocoa nut trees at the village Nânamgola to the congregation of Charakas at Pinditakávada, Govardhana, Suvarnamukha and the R&matirtha in Sorparaga, -inspired by (true) religion, in the Trirasmi hills at Govardhana, has caused this cave to be made and these cisterns. And by order of the lord I went to release the chief of the Uttamabhadras, who had been besieged for the rainy season by the Malayas, and those Malayas fled at the mere roar (of my approaching) as it were, and were all made prisoners of the Uttamabhadra warriors. Thence I went to the Pokshara tanks, and there I bathed and gave three-thousand cows and a village. A field has also been given by him, bought at the hands of the Brahmara Asvibhati, son of Varahi, for the price of four-thousand - 4,000 - kahd panas, which (field) belonged to his father, on the boundary of the town towards the north-western side. From it food will be procured for all monks, without distinction, dwelling in my cave."
The beginning of the ingeription till ashtabháryápradona is, except one or two insignificant discrepancies, but the reproduction in Sanskfit orthography of the beginning of No. 13 at K&rld. It will suffice to refer to this fact.
Dasapura is the only one among the four towns mentioned here which remains unidentified. I see no means of choosing between the Daśapara in Rajputana (Bühler), that in Malwa (Bhagwanlal), or others which might be added, as Mandasôr, etc. In No. 26 we see that some Sakas dwelt in that place; this is at least a hint that it ought to be searched for towards the north,
As for the river names, Bühler's and Bhagwanlal's views agree together. Dr. Bhandarkar proposed to restore opanyao and to separate ova-apanyatarao. Such a correction would be rash; but the general meaning would come to the same. Punyatara must be compared with punyatirtha which we have met before. As it characterises the Prabh&satirtha as a religious place, punya qualifies the ferries by boats established on those rivers as religious, charitable or meritorious ones, 1.6. as gratuitous. The phraseology whioh so constantly associates sabhd and prapa (compare Mahabharata, Anusasanikaparvan, vv. 1635, 1671 and 6685; Santiparvan, v. 1492, etc.) proves, contrary to Dr. Hoernle's ingenious, but too artificial conjecture, that the two words have to be taken as a dvandva.
Pimditakávada and Suvarnamukha ere, as far as I know, unidentified. In Nanamgola it is at least tempting to see with Bhagwanlal Nargol near Sanjan. The communities of Charakas to whom the gift has been made seem to be identioal with the Charakas who are named in a stereotyped formula of Buddhist (e.g. Mahavastu, III. 412 : anyatarthikacharakapariprajaka) and Jaina texts, namely & certain special category of Brâhmanical ascetice. To take charaka for 'Brahmapical students' would leave the gift too undetermined, and if the Charaka-sakhå of the Yajurvêda were meant, the expression would have been made more definite.
The real stumbling-block here is the compound dvdtritata. All interpreters understand by it a gift of a thousand coins) representing the value of thirty-two cocoanut trees. Bhagwanlal alone has translated 'who has bestowed as a gift thirty-two-thousand cocoanut trees.' This text cannot be considered independently from another, perfectly parallel one in N. 12, where we read : game Ohikhalapadre datáni naligeräna mulasahasrani atha 8000. The same difference exists there between Bühler's and Bhagwanlal's translations. First of all it must be owned that the gift of a capital amounting to the value of thirty-two cocoanut trees, to be distributed among at least four religious fraternities, would be, especially from so mighty and liberal a donor, extremely