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No. 28.)
SO-CALLED TAKHT-I-BAHI INSCRIPTION OF THE YEAR 103.
265
The first word in 1. 3 was read panchamē by the two French scholars, who also agreed in reading the ensuing sign or signs as pa, which, according to M. Senart, is the sign of the figure 5. I cannot accept this reading and interpretation.
The first akshara is much damaged, and there are several strokes which are probably the result of the use to which the stone has been put. There cannot, however, be any doubt, that it is a pa. I cannot see any trace of an anusvāra, but there are some strokes at the bottom, which may be the remnants of an u-matrā or of a post-consonantie r. The second letter consists of a vertical, bent towards the left at the top, and a distinct cross-bar. If the latter is accidental we would think of dha, and if the curvature at the top is due to accident or oversight, we would have tha. I have already in another connexion suggested to read prathamē, and I still think tbat reading the most likely one, though pradhame would also be possible.
What M. Senart read as the symbol for 5 I read as di 1. It is, as is well known, the unvariable custom in Kharðshthi to use the symbols for 4 and 1 when the number five is given in figures, and not in words. And it would be very extraordinary to find a notation of the kind suggested by M. Senart.
The ensuing aksharas were for the first time read by M. Boyer, and his transliteration iba is certainly correct, though both letters are damaged, and it is possible that isē is the reading intended. Isa and ifē are of frequent occurrence in Kharoshthi inscriptions in India and Eastern Turkistan, and the meaning is clear; they render Sanskrit asmin and atra. M. Boyer thinks that isa," with $ instead of s as in Magadhi," is Sanskrit ēsha, but that explanation cannot be right, esha being nothing else than the nominative singular, and the change of s or sh to s not being a feature of the vernacular. Scan only be an old sh or the representative of an old shy. In the Shāhbāzgashi version of the Asoka inscriptions we repeatedly find forms such as arabhilamti, Sanskrit Arabhishyanti, and in the Kbarðshthi manuscript of the Dhammapada é is frequently the representative of Sanskrit shy. Isa would accordingly be the regular representative of a female oblique form from the base i, and it is possible that the theme ishya has developed a stereotype locative adverb ishyē. At all events, the base must be the pronoun which we find in id-am.
After isa M. Boyer read chhunami samana, and M. Senart ... pade .... Ohhunumi would of course suit the context very well, but samana could not represent Skr. framana, as M. Boyer thinks, the only possible forms of that word in the dialect being samana and shamana.
Now there cannot, I think, be any doubt that the two last aksharas of the passage are pachhe. The traces of both letters are quite distinct, and puhas also been recognized by M. Senart. The new plate will show that chhe is also beyond doubt. Pachhe can scarcely be anything else than Sanskrit pākshē, pakshē, or, perhaps, pathye, salutary, suitable, auspicious, here used to characterize the day or the moment when the inscription was issued.
There accordingly only remain two aksharas between isa and pachhē, and so far as I can see the extant traces are more in favour of dinë than of chhune, though it is impossible to be quite certain.
I accordingly read the second date as follows: sumbatsaruě tisutimae 1 100 111 Vēšakhasu masasa diva se p[ratha]me di 1 isa [dinē] pachhē, in the hundred and third year-103, on the first day-d. 1 of the month Vaisakha, on this paksha-day, or, on this auspicious day.
The interpretation of the word pachhë is difficult. If we were justified in explaining, it as corresponding to Sanskrit pathye, we should be able to prove conclusively that the date of
18. B. A. W., 1916, p. 801.
. See Johansson, Actes du 8 congrés international des orientalistes 11, iii, pp. 129 and 169, where, however, the use of has not been explained.
* See Konow, Festschrift Windisch, p. 93.
