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No. 33.]
THREE EARLY BRAHMI INSCRIPTIONS.
247
The characters are of the so-called archaic type of the Mathura insoriptions; see especially the letters da, ba and sha, and the subsoript ya. The language is the mixed dialect. The inscription is not dated. It records various gifts of a Brahman of the Sagrava (Saigrava) gôtra, the treasurer of svimin mahikshatrapa Sond Ass. For details I refer to the remarks below.
TEXT. 1 Svamisya mahakshatrapasya Somdásasyal gaminjavarðņa brahmapons Sagravasagðtrêņa (p)....
2 rapi imasham yamada-pushkarapinana pasobima pushkarapi adapano Aramo s stambhô i... 3 [6ila patto cha-.
. REMARKS. 1 As to tho reading of this name see the remarks below.-2 Little is left of the pa, but the reading is certain. Restore pushka-. -3 The outlines of the letters mi uda pand drámô are more or less touched up with pencil, but the reading is perfectly certain. The reading file is certain, although the letters are entirely spoiled by being gone over with pencil.
TRANSLATION. By the treasurer of the lord, the mahikshatrapa Sondása, a Bråbman of the Sagrava (Saigratu) gótra, a tank, the western tank of these twin tanks, a reservoir, a grove, a pillar and this stono-lab (was caused to be made).
NOTES. As regards the language, the most interesting form is imdshdih. Apparently in the dialect of Mathuri the genitive plur. of the pronoun were, as in Påli, imesan and imisan, and the author of the inscription translated the latter form into iniishdi as he was wont to render imirain by im Ishdi. The nominative sing. masc. of the same pronona is found at the end of line 2, but unfortunately nothing is left of it but the initial _. The word pushkarani shows in the third syllable the vocalisation of the Pali pokkharani. Yamada corresponds to Skt. yamala or yamala, as the word would be written in Southera manuscripts. The construction of the inscription is rather peculiar, the verb or participle on which the instrumentals brdhmandna, eto, depend, being omitted.
The first point to command attention is the name of the mahAkshatrapa, which is generally supposed to be Sodasa. In the present inscription there is a distinot sign above the fo. It must have been found also in the impressions used by Dowson and Canningham, as the former roads Rinddsasya (for Sund dasya) and the latter Saudkisasya (for Sauddsasya), although the faosimiles show no trace whatever of an usvara or au. The siga cannot be the stroke denoting au, as it does not touch the upper line of the so, but is separated from it by a distinct blank space. It can only be an anusddra of the sa ne bulky shape as that in gamjavaréna and in pushkaraninan.
The form Somdása has not yet been recognised anywhere else. In the second Brahmi inscription at Mathura mentioning this mahakshatrapal Buhler read Soddsasa, but the photolithograph by no means exoludes the reading Sonddsasa. Right above the so there is a white spot scarcely less distinct than that above the ma of hámahtamded which Buhler read as anusvara. In the Mathará lion-capital inscription Mr. Thomas reads the name as Sudasa and Sudisa, and with regard to coins, Professor Rapson has atated in the Journ. Roy. As. 800. 1903, p. 289, note 3, that whenever the name is legible, the first akshara seems to be do, and that the alternative forms Suo and Sau, given by Bhagvanlal and Cunningham respectively, cannot be
Ep. Ind. Vol. II. p. 199, No. 2.
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Above, Vol. IX. Pp. 148, 144.
