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EPIGRAPHTA INDICA.
[VOL. XVIII.
the time when I noticed these images they were almost completely buried under the ground. However, sufficient remained visible to prove that they possessed great archeological value and were worth acquiring for the Central Museum at Nagpur, which contained scarcely any Buddhist specimens of this period. I, therefore, had them extricated from the earth and carefully cleaned. And my trouble was more than repaid by the discovery of dedicatory records on three of them.
Four of these images represent the Bodhisattva Avalokitēsvara, while the fifth is that of his consort Tāră. They all wear elaborate ornaments and are seated in an easy posture under a richly decorated canopy, consisting of seven umbrellas rising one above the other like the familiar hti on Buddhist stūpas. Numerous attendant figures are ranged on all sides and portrayed as paying devotion to the main deity in the centre. From their technique and the scheme of decoration it appears that they are products of the "Magadha school."
As I have already remarked, only three of the sculptures bear dedicatory inscriptions, and of these latter, two contain barely the Buddhist formula "ye dharmi hëtuprabhava," etc. The remaining one is more detailed and, therefore, more important. The characters are NĀgari and belong to the 11th or 12th century A.D. Subjoined are a transcript and translation of this record.
TEXT. Line 1 Yo dharma hotuprabhavă hēta[m] těsham Tatha ga]to hy-avadat [*]
těsha[m] cha yo niro[dha"] éva[m] vadı Mahāśrava(ma)[ņa]h !
[D7]yadha[r]mdyam pravara-mahājánujäyi[nah]" 2 param-opåsaka-kayastha-sri-Subhakta[sya]|suta-sri-Satka(kta)-davvă(dauvă)rikā (ka)
Dēnuvāyā [Ya*]d-atta(ttra) panyam [ta]d=bhavaty=a[ch]áry-opă[dhya]ya
mätäpitri(tri)-pirvva[nga]mam [kri]3 två sakala-satva-rå [sēr]=ano [tta]ra-jñā[n-"]våpta[ye-stu]"
TRANSLATION. Line 1. Whichever phenomena are cause-born, of them the cause the Tathāgata (Buddha) alone has said, and what annihilation also there is of them. Such is the lore of the Great Gramaņa (Buddha). • Ll. 1-3. This is the pious gift of the follower of the renowned Mahāyāna school, the gate-keeper Dēnuvā, devoted to the illustrious Satka', son of the great lay-worshipper, the famous fubhakta, a kayastha. Whatever merit there is herein, let it be for the attainment of supreme wisdom by all classes of sentient beings, particularly, beginning with my spiritual guide, my preceptor and my parents,
No.11.-THE GHUGRAHATI COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION OF SAMACHARA-DEVA.
BY NALINIKANTA BHATTABALI, M.A., CUBATOR, DACCA MUSEUM. An article on this plate by Mr. R. D. Banerji, under the title Kotwalipări spuriona grant of famiohara-Diva', with a prefatory note from Mr. H. E. Stapleton, appeared with a facsimile plate in the August, 1910. number of the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, wherein Mr. Banerji upheld Dr. Bloch's opinion (Arch, Surv. Rep. for 1907-8, p. 255) that the plate wa forgery.
Bead yan-anugarina. * One of the two verbs astw or bharat (1.9) must be cancelled. . Pomibly Sutku or sa-Baths was the dane of the Master ander whore Diagrå served as a gate-keeper.
