________________
No. 23.] NEW BRAHMI INSCRIPTIONS OF THE SCYTHIAN PERIOD.
109
II.-INSCRIPTION ON THE BASE OF A BODHISATTVA IMAGE.
This fragment was discovered, according to Growse, in a mound near the Circular Road at Mathura. The language is corrupt Sanskrit and the characters are neat and well incised. They belong to the early Kushana period. The important point about this inscription is that it is a Bodhisattva image and not a Buddha image as Growse calls it. The inscription consists of a single mutilated line on the upper rim of the pedestal (Lucknow Museum Catalogue No. B-18.)
(date specified as) above up by.
TEXT.
varshā māsẽ 2 divase e a[syām pūrvvāyāṁ]
pēna Bod[dhisat[v]o p[r]atis [th]apito ma[ta pitihi salha
TRANSLATION.
"the second month of the rainy season, the sixth day, on that a Bōdhisattva (image) was set . pa together with (his) mother (and) father (and) .
The pedestal is one of the finest pieces of carving turned out by the Mathura school of sculptors. It represents two men of high rank sitting on a series of steps apparently conversing with each other. The heads of these figures are slightly damaged, but the execution is very fine. The mutilation of the first few letters of the inscription and the loss of the main figure is greatly to be deplored, as they would have been very important for the history of Indian sculpture.
III.-INSCRIBED JAINA IMAGE, THE YEAR 9.
Nothing is known about the findspot of this image. It stands in the Jaina section of the Lucknow Museum, and, judging from its workmanship, is most probably a product of the Mathura school. The discovery of the Bodhisattva images of Sarnath and Srävasti has made us chary in the matter of assigning findspots of antiquities extempore. No references either to the sculpture or to the inscription have been found in Dr. Führer's Annual Reports or in the Minutes of the Lucknow Museum. The image is headless and belongs to the Digambara sect (Plate I., Front). The Jina evidently stands on a cushion placed on an opening lotus. To his proper right two men are standing with hands folded in adoration and their backs turned towards each other. To the proper left a female figurine stands with a flywhisk (?) in her hands. The image is carved in the round. On each flank is a tall slender pilaster with a bell shaped capital and a square abacus which again bears a couple of rosettes on its rim. The pilaster on the proper left has been damaged by the incision of a square mortise hole. The reverse is occupied by the representation of a tall tree with bunches of small four petalled flowers which resemble the atoka blossom. A female stands to the proper left of the tree holding a garland in the right hand, while in front of her a child stands with hands folded in adoration. To the right of the tree is a vessel made of leaves containing a garland and by its side a male is standing with clasped hands (see pl. I.).
The inscription consists of three short, irregular lines, of which one is incised on the edge of the cushion and the others on the lotus petals; two short fragmentary lines are incised between the feet of the Jina. The language is the usual corrupt Sanskrit common in inscriptions of this kind and the characters are of the Northern Indian type of the Kushana period. The epigraph is dated in the year 8 of the Kushana era and must probably be referred to the
1 Growse's Mathura (2nd edition) p. 106, and plate facing p. 108.
