________________
268
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XVIII.
of which we have now a good reproduction in the excellent edition by Mr. N. G. Majumdar.1 The third line of this record, where the word parivāra occurs, cannot be read with absolute certainty; and I shall not, in this place, try to show how I arrive at my reading of the whole of it. We learn that a yathi, a staff, has been raised (in memory) of the friar Nigadatta, and that the Upasika Balanandi, the wife of a householder, and the mother of Balaja, makes a present of an anuparivara, which in my opinion can hardly mean anything else than & subsequent enclosing through a wall for the purpose of building up the shaft in which the staff was placed.
The word paritāra again occurs in the Måņikiala inscription, where we read that the dandanāyaka Lala erects a stúpa, together with some other persons and the whole paritara : sa(in)vona cha parivarēna sadha. Here we may translate " together with the whole retinue", but the original meaning of paritära can very well be the same as in the Mathuri Lion capital inscription.
Finally, we meet with the word parivara in the Wardak vase inscription, where I would read in 1. 3: mahiya cha rohana sada sarvina avashadigana-sa parivara cha-agrabhagapadi. yasai bhavatu, and let my deposit--and also the surrounding wall (or chapel)-for ever lead to sharing in the preferential lot for all (beings) up to the heretice.
I think that this examination will have shown that parivāra can be translated by "surrounding structure","hall ", " chapel ", and such is, in my opinion, the meaning of the word in our inscription, which records the donation of some structure bearing the name of Balasvāmin, the Saviour, perhaps a memorial monument, or a building raised by him.
The next word was read yadha .. na by M. Senart and sadhadana by M. Boyer. The first akshara can hardly be sa. Its top is more rounded than in the sa of rēšakha, 1. 1, and the damaged sa of isa, 1. 2. Moreover, there are traces of a vertical below the upper curve. I have, therefore, suggested to read shadhadana. I think that this reading is quite certain. The change of fr to sh is a regular feature in Ancient Khotant and apparently also in the north-western dialect of the Kharoshthi inscriptions, though we always find é in the name of the month Srāvana. In that word, however, the Sanskrit form would naturally exercise its influence. We find the same tendency to substitute sh for śr in the dialect of the Kharðshthi Dhammapada, and it is probably due to the linguistic peculiarities of the dialect which the Indo-Skythians adopted in the Indian border districts.
The third akshara da has a peculiar shape. Its lower end is curved towards the left and continued upwards in an angle. It is possible that we are here faced with the a-mitra, which is of frequent occurrence in the Kharðshthi documents from Eastern Turkistan. Or else the hook is the mark of the anusvāra, indicating the nasalization of a vowel before a nasal, which is a common feature in Ancient Khotani. We must accordingly read shadhadana or shadhadarna.
The corresponding Sanskrit word would be sraddhadana, or sraddhadāna. M. Boyer compares Páli saddhādeyya, Buddhist Sanskrit sraddhādēya, "a gift of faith ", " a pious gift"
Of the ensuing aksharas M. Senart only read the two first ones, in which he saw sapa. M. Boyer read sapayasõvadana, and explained this as saprajāsuradana, taking it together with the following miraböyanasa, so that the whole should mean" with his children Suvadani and Miraboyana ". He thinks that the curiously shaped last letter contains a na with a du added above after the na had been engraved, when there was no more space left below. I am unable to accept his reading. The initial sa is certain. The second akshara is pa, but has a distinct loop at the bottom, so that we must evidently read pu. The third letter, which was
1 Sir Asutosh Mookerjee Silper Jubilee Volumes, Vol. III, Part I, pp. 459 fr. ? 8. B. A. W., 1916, p. 801. . Cf. Konow, Festschrift Windinol, p. 94. . cf. e.g. the document N. XXIV viii 9 reverse in Sir Aurel Stein's Serindia, Plate XXIV.
