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194
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXIV.
No. 97.-SEVEN BRAHMI INSCRIPTIONS FROM MATHURA AND ITS VICINITY.
BY PROFESSOR H. LUDERS, BERLIN.
I.-The Mort Well Inscription.
1
Mork is a small village 7 miles west of Mathura City and 2 miles to the north of the road loading from Mathurā to Govardhan. In 1882 General Cunningham discovered there a large inscribed slab which formed part of the terrace of an ancient well. In 1908 Dr. Vogel had the slab removed to the Mathură Museum under supervision of Pandit Radha Krishna. A transcript and a facsimile of the inscription were published by Cunningham, ASR. Vol. XX (1885), p. 49 and Plate V, No. 4. At that time the inscription was already fragmentary, more than half of it having peeled away on the right side, but it has since become much more damaged. It was edited again by Vogel, Cat. Arch. Mus. Mathurā p. 184, No. Q1. His transcript was reprinted, with a photolithograph of the inscription in its present state, by Ramaprasad Chanda, MASI. No. 1 (1919), p. 22, and Plate VI, No. 8, and an attempt to correct the reading of the second line of the inscription was made by the same scholar in MASI. No. 5 (1920), p. 166f. The inscription was carefully engraved in archaio' characters and Cunningham's transcript and facsimile are apparently in the nain correct. The following text is therefore based on them with such corrections as are warranted by a new impression or suggested by general considerations. In the notes I have stated the readings of the impression, of Cunningham's facsimile, of his transcript and of Vogel's transcript. I think that this rather minute treatment is justified by the importance of the inscription.
TEXT. mahakshatrapasa Rajavulasa putrasa svāmi ........... 2 bhagavatāṁ Vpishộinā[] pamchavirāņāṁ pratimā[h] sailadevagri ..... 3 Vals-Toshalyan sailam srimad-gribam-atulam-udadhasamadhårs.. 4 archädesår kailām pamcha jvalsta iva Paramavapusha .............
NOTES. Line 1.
Impression: mahakshat[r]a[pa] C.'s facsimile: mahakshatrapasa Rājūvulasa putra[sa] .. C.'s transcript : Mahakshatrapasa Rajubulasa putrasa Swami Va-(V:) Vogel : Mahak(sha)t(rapasa Rājūvulasa putra)
As regards the name of the mahākshatrapa Cunningham's facsimile is certainly more trustworthy than his transcript. In the facsimile the pu of putrasa shows at the top some strokes which might be taken as the sign for au, but as the u-stroke at the bottom of the letter is quite distinct, putrasa must be considered the correct reading. The last word svāmi is based only on Cunningbam's transcript, the facsimile showing only the subscript va. But svämi is exactly what we should expect. Rājūvula's son was Sodasa, who in the Mathurā inscriptions Nos. 59 and 82 of my List' and in the Mathurā pillar inscription edited below is styled svāmin mahākshatrapa. I have therefore no doubt that Cunningham's transcript is correct as far as svāmi is concerned and that the original reading was svāmisa (or possibly svāmi-) mahakshatrapasa.
1 In Vogel's transcript the portions enclosed within round brackets have been taken from Cunningham's facsimile.
· The nunders of inscriptions quoted in the following pages always refer to my List of Brahmi Inscriptions.
