Epigraphia Indica Vol 16

Author(s): F W Thomas, H Krishna Sastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 38

No. 3.)
SHORKOT INSCRIPTION OF THE YEAR 83.
but according to Curtius they were situated not very far from the confluence of the Hydaspes (1.e. the Vitasta, modern Jehlam) and the Akesines. This agrees very nearly with the position of Shorkot..
Sir Alexander Cunningham in his account of Shorkot notes that according to the local Brahmans "the original name of the place was Shivanagari or Sheopur, which was gradually contracted to Shor." Thus we see that some reminiscence of the ancient name has been preserved down to the present day. In its correct form, Sibipura, we find it in the inscription here under discussion. The ancient name Sibipura has become contracted to the modern form Shor, to which the word kot (=a fort) has been added in the same way as has happened with the names of other towns of the Panjab. Well-known instances are Sial-koţ (in which Sial is probably derived from Sāgala), Pathankot (Pathan probably from Pratishthāna) and Nagar-kot (in which Nagar means "the Town ").
It further appears from the inscription that the spot where the metal vessels were found more definitely marks the site of the Radbika Convent, which must have been situated in a park (upavana). Most probably this content stood outside the walled city, as was usual in the Case of Buddhist monasteries in India.
Finally it should be noticed that the Shorkot inscription confirms the prevalence of the Sarvåstivada sect in the north-west of India. Several other epigraphical records bear testimony to the importance of the sect : one of them is the inscription on the famous relic casket of Kanishka discovered at Shahji-ki-Dheri near Peshawar in March 1909. From tho accounts of the Chinese pilgrims it is, moreover, evident that the influence of the Sarvästivādins was by no means restricted to this part of India. While discussing the data supplied by the Chinese pilgrim I-tsing regarding the geographical extension of this school, Professor Takakuru remarks': " It flourished in Central and North India, and had some followers in East and West India, but it seems to have had very few adherents in South India, and was entirely absent in Coslon. In Sumatra, Java, and the neighbouring islands almost all belonged to this school, and in China all the four sub-divisions of it were lourishing. Even in Champa a trace of it was found. No other school, so far as we can ascertain, ever flourished so widely as the Sarvástivāda, either before or after the seventh century ; though its adherents in India alone, in Hinen Tsiang's time, were not so numerous as those of the other schools."
No. 4.-BHAMODRA MOHOTA PLATE OF DRONASIMHA : THE YEAR 183.
BY LIONEL D. BABNETT. The following inscription was originally published by Mr. A. M. T. Jackson in the Journ. Bombay Br. R. A. 8., Vol. XX, No. LIV, pp. 1 ff., bat without any facsimile. At the instance of the late Dr. Fleet Mr. D. R. Bhandarkar kindly sent me an excelleot ink-impression, from which I now publish the text anew, together with a plate.
Mr. Jackson reports that the plate containing the present inscript'on, trgether with other charter, was found "baried in a field in the village of Bhamodra Mohota near Bhaunagart in the year 1895," and was acquired by Mr. L. Procter Sims, engineer of Bhatnagar State. It is slightly irregular in shape: the maximum height is 614 in., the maximum breadth
14.8. R., Vol. V, pp. 97 #, and Ancient Geography of India, Vol. I, p. 133. Cunningham's identification of Shortõţ with Alexandria Soriana is to be discarded.
? 4. 8. R. for 1908-9, p. 51, and for 1909-10, p. 136. . I-tsing. A record of the Buddhist religion, transl. by J. Takakusu, Oxford, 1896, p. XXI!.
The only village with the name of Bhamodrs that I can trace is some distance from Bhaunaga". It lies 16 miles nearly east from Kundla, in bat. 21° 29* and long. 71° 37'.