Epigraphia Indica Vol 19

Author(s): Hirananda Shastri
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 24

No. 1.}
THE ZEDA INSCRIPTION OF THR YEAR 11.
mean some appliance for drawing water or some obannol or feeder for conduoting water to the well, but as long as even the reading is not certain, it is useless to try to fix the meaning.
The ensuing akshara eannot be la. It consists of an upper curve, continued downwards ip & line which first projects towards the right, then ends in a knee with a vertioal running down to the bottom. There is a faint erose-bar in the middle, which, however, seems to be accidental. So far as I can see, the only posibility is to read sha. If the OPOS-ber were not accidental, we might think of the shape of chha which is used in the Aboka inscriptions and in Central Asian documents to denote the old Sanskrit chh, which is always carefully distinguished from the Prakrit chh derived from ksh, etc. But there does not seem to be any reason for thinking that the thin stroke visible through the middle of the vertical really belongs to the akshara.
After this cha M. Boyer read bhai, but there is a distinct u-loop at the bottom of bha, and we must read bhui. This bhui cannot be anything else than Sanskrit bhūyah, and toyanda (?) cha bhui seems to be one of those parenthetical sentences which are sometimes met with in Kharoshthi records.
Then comes danamukha, the only word in the whole passage about which there cannot be any doubt.
The ensuing akshara was read stra by Cunningham, whilo M. Boyer saw in it a sg. It seems to me that the cross-bar is far too distinet to be aecidental. On the other hand, I cannot follow Cunningham in reading stra, for the compound letter sta always has a straight vertical, while the main portion of our letter is a rounded line ending in a rounded bend to the left at the top, and another one to the right at the bottom. So far as I can see, it is axactly the same letter which stands at the beginning of L 4 of the Sue Vihăr inscription, where it is certainly hi. I therefore read hi, and I follow M. Boyer in taking the ensuing akshara as pea, reading accordingly hipea instead of his sapea.
I am not certain about the ensuing aksharas, which M. Boyer read dhia. There seems to have been a good deal of peeling off, and the result are some curious étrokes at the top of the apparent dhi and at the bottom of the second letter. They seem, however, to be accidental and I accept M. Boyer's dhia, but I take the following sa to belong to the preceding letters and read the whole as hipeadhiasa.
Now if we compare other Kharoshthi inscriptions mentioning the digging of wells, it will be seen that the person or persons at whose request the well was dug, are always mentioned. We must therefore, I think, necessarily infer that hipeadkiasa is the name of a person. I cannot analyse this word or words. Hipea reminds us of Greek names such as Hippeos, Hippias and Dhia might be an adaptation of some Greek name. Cf. Diya in the Beshagar column inscription. It would not, however, be safe to make any definite statement about the etymology of the name. The only thing which seems to be certain is that Hipeadhiasa is the name of the donor, perhaps a double name, Hipea Dhiasa, in which case Hipea should probably be considered as the genitive of a base Hipe or Hipei.
1 This wign is only met with twice in later Kharöshthi inseriptions, viz., in an unpublished Mansehra in. scription of the year 68 and on the Mathurs Lion Capital, where it has not, however, been recognized but been treated 18 & compound sht so that the word palichhina, Sanskrit parichchhinna, has been read palishfena. There is no other instance where it could possibly have been used, all the other occurrenose of ehl representing the derived Prakrit sound, which was no doubt different from old chh and which I nov transliterate as kah.
* Cf Lūders, J. R. 4. 8., 1909, p. 650 ; 8. B. 4 W., 1918, p. 7631
• Muchai: sahayarana kue vashikugana ; Mount Banj : makadaka putrasa.... kuo daramoho; Pāja : Ayam patreya Sathghamitrona kue karite ; Bhakardarra: kuvo khadas trapivad[rjanasa...daramukho; im. thada kupe Drehafolena Poshapuria putr[e]øa ; Kala Sang : [aaha*]yaropa Pipolaktonna tuo; Margar we tunaya [ropa ...] daran