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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XLX;
notice of the record has already appeared in the Annual Report of the Archaological Survey of India, Frontier Circle, 1920-21, pp. 5-6. I now edit it from a set of excellent photographs and estampages which Mr. Hargreaves had very kindly sent to me.
It is incised on a slab of stone which is slightly damaged. Excepting a few letters which have peeled off, it is in a sound state of preservation. The writing consists of only 2 lines covering a space of 21" x 3", and is neatly done. It is divided by a horizontal line drawn across the blank space between lines 1 and 2. The letters vary in size from it' to .
The cbaracters are Kharöghthi of the Kushāna variety. According to Bühler, this variety is "represented by the strongly cursive script of the first and second centuries A.D. (?), which begins with the Takht-i-Bāhi inscription of Gondopheres and is fully developed in the inscriptions of the later Kuşana kings Kanişka and Huviska and occurs also in the MS. of the Dhammapada from Khotan." But the present record contains scarcely any cursive forms at all, a feature in its palæography that is specially to be noted. The evidence of this inscription partially repudiates Bühler's statement and shows that cursiveness need not be necessarily associated with the Kharoshthi of the Kushāna period. Of greater paleographic significance are, in the present case, the superscript r expressed by a loop at the base of a letter (in sarve, 1. 2), and the form of the letter & which is open to the left, without the least upward projection of the lower vertical line (e.g., in Aspaïasa, l. 1). That the inscription cannot be earlier than the Kushāna period follows at once from the presence of these two characteristics. Two conjunct forms deserve to be noted, viz., dn and sp. Of these, $p (Aspajasa, 1. 1) is already well known from coins and inscriptions. But the ligature dn (radne, L. 2) is new. It is composed of the signs for d and n simply joined together without any modification of their individual forms.
The language is north-western Prāksit, called 'Gandharian' by Bühler. The nominative singular ends in e (e.g., parigrahe). The letter t is changed into d (radne), th into dh (padhamanmi), p and m intov (prethavide, ive) and v conjointly with $ into p (Aspaïasa). The conjunct ér becomes sh (shavaena). The r is often retained in groups, both as a posterior (e.g., pari. grahe) and a prior member (e.g., sarva). Cases of consonantal elision are rather abundant. The letter y is invariably elided, e.g., in Aspasasa (Advayujasya), sa(?)haehi (sahāyaih), dhamaüte (dharma-yuktah), and Odiliakehi. The letter k is elided, e.g., in shavaena (brāvakēna) and Podae (na ?) (Potakëna), and i, in A&païasa. Elision of medial consonants is very rare in the Präkpit of the earliest Kharöshthi documents, namely, those of Asoka from Shāhbäzgarhi and Mansehra. Again, the Mathura lion-capital inscriptions, which belong to circa 1st century A.D., contain fewer instances of consonantal elision, when compared to the present record. From this point of view, the language of the record would seem to represent a much more advanced stage of development like the Prākpit of Indian dramas and of the Dutreuil de Rhins MS. of the Dhammapada from Khotan which has been assigned to the 3rd century A.D.
The inscription records the establishment of the jewel' (ratna), i.e., an image of the Buddha, by the disciple (Grāvaku) Potaka, together with his companions, the Odiliakas, the sons of Sida. It is dated the first day of the month of Abvayuja, the year 359.
• It is by no means easy to decide the era in which this record is dated. The Leriyan Tangai inscription of the year 3185 and the Hashtnagar insoription of the year 384, bave
1 Indian Palæography (trans.), p. 25. * Majumdar, Sir A. Mookerji Silver Jmb. Yola., Orientalia, Part I, pp. 461-62. • Banerji, JRAS., 1920, pp. 208-9. • Thomas, Ante, Vol. IX, p. 138.
JASB., 192, p. 63. • I'agi ter, Ante, Vol. XII, p. 302.
