Book Title: Epigraphia Indica Vol 12
Author(s): Sten Konow
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

View full book text
Previous | Next

Page 158
________________ No. 16.) THE “PYU” INSCRIPTIONS. 129 » BI » DI. » DI TEXT. Plate A tdņ8 þå u hi t(r)s hna (ka) harivikramal hå8 BI td 8 þå8 u (bhg) s(n)a8 [8]ihavikrama þå8 » C tdə þåg a hi sūriyavikrama hå8 » DI tdạ8 hå: a bi sūriyavikrama þås uv()8 Plate A snis (na s kni (de) hni snis hrå să (de) hni sni8 () si (de) (p) (6) Dl þå8 k(d)io þås [tą] tio (p!)io snið (hau)8 sa pf () Plate A ti" phvg (t)pâ p(1)å ta (k)io (kha) a sni sni8 p(!)& sa Bl tio phug p(!)å ta (k)io (kha) sni8 sni8 p(1)& si ta (k)io (kha) u [sn]i: sni8 tr[u sau] ta (k)io (kha) sni8 Plate A tå (de) kni tio phug t(k)o tio td>8 &S a ra (kl)e8 på BI p(1)& (de) (k)o tio phvg (t)på tio tdạ8 588 u ru (kl)e8 yå » Cp(1) ti8 tdə bå8 u ro (kl)e8 y& þåg u ru (kl)e8 på Where so much is uncertain it seems hardly worth while to discuss the doubtful letters at length. The word de may perhaps be le, or something else. The word bhii might conceivably berg, rę or ; ta may be vg or even t'e, and so on. There is very little to guide one in these doubtful cases, when the language is as good as unknown. I am not sure whether tio just before the last tda8 onght to have two dots after it or one : the texts appear to differ. In C piria looks like minia. The letter vi is also very like j in several of these words. It appears from these inscriptions compared together that they have the following common elements : (a) the phrase tda8 ba8u....ba8, which includes the easily recognizable proper names Harivikrama, Sihavikrama and striyavikrama, (b) the phrase beginning with anis and ending with ta kio kha # sni3, aud (c) the final phrase þå u tu kleyå. What are we to make of it all? It appears from the Myazedi inscription that tda8 means "king" and has is a general honorific word, prefixed to the names of august personages (and worshipful objects, such as the statue of the Buddha mentioned in that inscription). What the next few words stand for I do not know. In the Myazedi inscription hi appears to mean "to die" and " death", but I am by no means sure that it is the same word here. In view of the unintelligible variant in Bl and the additional tra hna ka in A, I have my doubts. Perhaps these are partly names or titles of the personages commemorated. It is plain that on the strength of the first phrase we are justified in speaking of a dynasty reigning at Prome, which used "Pyu" as its official language and affected Indian names ending in vikrama. But very likely its members had “Pyu" names as well. The honorific bả8 was apparently capable of being suffixed as well as prefixed to the royal name. The words uvo8 to plio in Dl are beyond me at present. I merely point out that the first word occurs in l. 3 of the Myazedi inscription. Possibly it should be read u vo8 and in that case the u would be the genitive alfix. It would then be tempting to conjecture that 008 meant "queen", as it accompanies the word mayas in that context. If we read uvg8, perhaps the word means "his." But in any case I think we may conclude with great probability that [There is a sign resembling an annsvära above, and a virama below the akshana ma in Harivikram, - S. K.) [Looks like thio-S. K.) * This looks more like saw in my rabbing than it does in the plate, but I am very doubtful of it.

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 417 418 419 420 421 422 423 424 425 426 427 428 429 430 431 432 433 434 435 436 437 438 439 440 441 442 443 444 445 446 447 448 449 450 451 452 453 454 455 456 457 458 459 460 461 462 463 464