Epigraphia Indica Vol 20

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

Page 13

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
(VOL. XX
As more
Amaravati, although perhaps they cannot boast of the high artistic merit which we admire in the best work from that place. Among the sculptural decoration of the two pillars discovered by Mr. Longhurst there are figures which clearly betray Roman influence. The full report of his excavations will be received with the greatest interest. There cannot be the slightest doubt that Nāgārjunikonda represents, next to Amaravati, the most important Buddhist site hitherto found in Southern India. The results which Amarāvati might have yielded have, for a large part, been irreparably lost owing to the deplorable vandalism perpetrated on that monument more than a century ago. It is all the more gratifying that the site of Nagarjunikonda is now being systematically explored so that no piece of evidence is likely to be overlooked. Mr. Longhurst estimates that the complete excavation of the site will require three years more.
When in February 1882 Dr. Burgess excavated the site of the Jaggayyapeta stūpa, on the Pālēr river, a tributary of the Kộishņā and about four miles north of their junction, he chanced upon three inscribed pillars, bearing each an identical dedicatory inscription in Prakrit. These epigraphs record the gift of five ayaka-khambhas at the eastern gate of the Mahāchetiya or Great Chaitya by & certain artisan (āvesani) Siddhattha in the twentieth year of King Mädhariputa Siri-Vira purisadata of the Ikhaku dynasty. The corresponding form in Sanskrit would be Māthariputra Sri-Vira purushadatta. Dr. Burgess expressed the opinion that the Jaggayyapeta inscriptions belong to about the third or fourth century A.D., but are possibly earlier." Dr. Bühler, while editing them, placed the reign of King Purisadata in the third century of our era, and before the accession of the Palla vas to the throne of Vengi."
The position of such ayaka-pillars on the monument to which they once have belonged becomes perfectly dear from the chaitya-slabs which have been found in such remarkable numbers on the site of Amaravati. These chaitya-Blabs exhibit the effigy in relief of a chaitya or stüpa in all its details, in other words, they represent the great monument which they once adorned. Now, one of the most prominent features of the main edifice-a feature not met with, as far as we are aware, in other parts of India is a row of five columns surmounting a kind of projecting balcony which seems to form part of the procession-path running around the body of the monument. These pillars invariably oocupy & position right opposite the entrances to the sacred enclosure, and as the stone railing surrounding the sanctuary has an entrance on each of the four cardinal points, it follows that the monument, when entire, must have had four sets of such pillars. They do not appear to have had any structural function as supporting members, but, besides carrying wellknown Buddhist emblems, they were utilised for dedicatory inscriptions, as have been noticed at Jaggayyapeta. The word ayaka-Ihambha mentioned in these epigraphs is evidently the technical term by which they were known'.
There can be little doubt that the great stupa of Amarāvati, when entire, was decorated with such pillars, but only a few fragments have been recovered. In the case of the monument of
1 J. Burgess, The Buddhist Stupas of Amaravati and Jaggayyapela; London, 1887, pp. 110 f., plates LXII and LXIII. 04. H. Lüders, List of Brahmi Inscriptions, Nos. 1202-1204 (Ep. Ind., Vol. X, app., pp. 139 f.); G. Bahler, Indische Palæographie, p. 44. * Ind. Ant., Vol. XI (1882), pp. 256 ff.
The word ayaka oocurs also in the compounde dakhin-yaka (Burgers, Amaravati, etc., p. 86, pl. LX, no. 47) and war-dyala (ibidem, p. 93), which have been rendered "the south entrance" and "the northern gate". It is questionable whether this translation is correct. The word "gate" is rendered by dara (Skt. dudra). Most probably the word ayaka indicates that part of the monument where the ayaka-khambhas were placed.
Burgess, op. ort., pl. XLV,1-4. The finest specimen is the square lower end of a pillar decorated on the four sides with as many Buddhist symbols--a stūpa, a bödhi-tree, a chaitya-hall, and a wheel. There is an inscription in four lines beneath the figure of the stüpa (pl. LX, no. 47) in which the pillar is called chetiya-kha [e]. bho sadhaduko.