Epigraphia Indica Vol 08

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

Page 94

No. 8.)
NASIK CAVE INSCRIPTIONS.
K&pura district have been given eight thousand - 8000 - stems of cocoanut trees; and all this has been proclaimed (and) registered at the town's hall, at the record office, according to custom."
"Again the donation previously made by the same in the year 41, on the fifteenth of the bright half of Kärttika, has in the year 46, on the fifteenth
the fifteenth . . . . . . been settled on the venerable gods and Brâhmaņas, vit. seventy thousand- 70000-kárshápanas, each thirtyfive making a suvarna, a capital (therefore) of two thousand suvarnas. (This is registered) at the record office according to custom."
Here the difficulties begin with the word kusana. Bhagwanlal's vague attempts at explaining it cannot well be considered anything but a failure, and the comparison with the Vedio krišana does not help us any more. Literary works do not seem to have supplied to this day any instance of the word. It is but to be wondered at that the use itself to which it refers is not only foreign, but contrary to the laws of discipline as they are laid down in the Scriptures. In fact I do not think any doubt can be entertained as to the custom to which the word kubana alludes. Several inscriptions at Kapheri (Arch. Surv. Vol. V.) commemorate various endowments with a double object : chivarska solasaka paliko cha mise utukåle (No, 15); chivarika bårasaka gimhdsu padiko mase (No. 18); chivarika solasaka padiko mi se cha utukdle (No. 21); chivarika ... solasaka utukåle cha (padiko mase] (No. 28). This series corresponds with our own epigraph in the first member; it is extremely probable that both correspond in the second as well, and that consequently kusana means a monthly stipend, assigned to every monk during & certain period of the year, and probably to be applied for his food. Such a proceeding of course is, from the point of view of principle, most incorrect, the monks being expected to live on alms and being precluded from even touching any money. The general interpretation seems nevertheless certain. The case is different as regards the precise meaning and etymology of the word. I know of no really probable conjecture I could suggest. Although rather numerous, the passages at Kanheri do not even state distinctly during which period of the year the supply was conceded. Most of them are content to speak of the situkála. As, however, the distribution of the kuśanamala appears to have been strictly parallel with that of the chivarika or money for clothes reserved for the varsha time (vasavuthanaris bhikhunan), this season' kar' Eoxhy must be the varsha. If No. 18 expressly mentions the bot season (githesu), this is due, I suppose, to the circumstance that at that time and in that place the annual retreat began already in Ash&dha, 2.e. still in summer.
The words vridhi padikašata and vadhi payunapadikafata look perfectly clear, and they have in fact been translated quite naturally : the interest amounts to one hundred' and 'to seventyfive pratikas.' The matter is, however, not quite so simple. Those expressions cannot be considered separately from others which do not admit of such an interpretation; I mean in this inscription sahasrani be ye padike sate and ya sahasraprayutan payunapadike šate, and at Kanheri, No. 15, kahapanani satáni be saghasa yeva hathe palike sate. It is clear from the first that & capital of 200 kárshápaņas cannot possibly bring in the same interest as a capital of 2000. On the other hand, the final e of padike and sate being secured by the threefold repetition, we must find an explanation for the double locative which the ordinary translations in no way account for. As to usidhi padikafata, the translation 'interest a hundred padikas' is excluded by the consequences it would involve. Bühler was led by reasons which on the whole are, if not cogent, at least very plausible, to consider pratika as an equivalent of karshapana. Of course he was obliged to acknowledge that those hundred pratikas were not sufficient to supply the expenses for the clothes of twenty monks, at twelve kårshapanas each, because they would in that case require 240 karshapanas in all. He was obliged to assume that bárasaka (Sanskrit duadataka) refers to some coins different from the kärshapana. But Kapheri No. 16, where the fee of sixteen keirshápamas' for cloth money is expressly mentioned, loaves no room for doubt;kárshápapas are
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