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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
(Vol. XXIV.
I would rather restore Adhaporika to Arddha paurika and explain it as ' inhabitant of Riddhapura'. This place seems to be identical with the modern Rithpur which is well known to the Indian archaeologist as the provenance of a copper-plate inscription of the Vakataka queen Prabhävatigupta. It is situated in 21° 14' N. and 77° 51' E. in the district of Amraoti, Berăr, and is reputed to be an old city of importance. It is not unlikely that Atapora of the present record is likewise to be understood as Arddha paura, meaning inhabitant of Riddhapura'.
A pillar inscription from Amaravath reads Chetikiyānam (Skt. Chaityakiyänän) where our inscription has Puvasel[Olyana (Skt. Purvasailiyānām). In explaining the import of the former, Burgess has pointed out that the Stūpa belonged to the Chaitika school, otherwise called the school of the Pirvakailas, a subdivision of the Mahasanghikas'. Mention is made of these ascetios also in a fragmentary Prakrit inscription from Allüru in the Nandigama taluk, Kistna District, the last line of which reads as follows: ayirāna Puraseliy[á]na nigāyasa. In the Pāli chronicles of Ceylon the Pubbaseliya and the Aparaseliya are mentioned among the different sub-sects of the Mahăsămghika school. Dr. W. Geiger, in his translation of the Mahāvarnsa, renders the two terms as the first Seliya.., the other Seliya,' whereas the words pubba and a para of the original evidently refer to east' and 'west rather than to first' and 'other'. In fact, Hiuen Tsiang, while describing the country of Dhanakataka, informs us that to the east of the capital bordering on a mountain is a convent called the Pūrvašilă' and 'to the west of the city leaning against & mountain is a convent called Avarasilā'' In this connection we may cite Prof. Vogel's following remark : " Perhaps it would be preferable to render the names of these two monasteries by Purvasaila and Avarasaila, the Sanskrit word for a mountain being saila, whereas sila means "stone". It becomes thus clear that the two sects Purvasailiya and Aparasailiya were so called after the two congregations of monks, one residing in a monastery on the Eastern Hill and the other dwelling in a convent on the Western Hill.. Among the localities mentioned in the Nägarjunikonda inscription referred to above, we come across the name Purvasela which is clearly a Prakrit form corresponding to Sanskrit Purvasaila' and possibly refers to the very mountain on which the Purvasailiya monastery was situated. As regards the location of the two mounts, Burgess and Fergusson identified the Amaravati tope with the Pūrvasilā and the Aparašilā respectively, but their identification has been questioned.10 There can, however, be little doubt that the situation of the two hills is to be sought in that very neighbourhood.
As has been pointed out above, the record contained a date in the beginning; but its details are mostly lost in the damaged portion. From the preserved letters we gather that it was dated the first day evidently of the sixth fortnight. While the name of the season cannot be restored at all, an attempt has been made with the help of the surviving portions of the words in that connection to read the year conjecturally as panatrisa, i.e., thirty-five. This in all probability referred to the regual year of the king whose name is again missing. In the Dharmachakra pillar ins
Bhandarkar's List of Inscriptions of Northern India, No. 1706. * See Imperial Gazetteer of India, under Ritpur,
Arch. Suru. Southern India, Vol. I, p. 100. • Ibid., p. 191. See also p. 24 where the name of the school is given as Chaityika and Chaitya saila. • Annual Report on South Indian Epigraphy, 1923-24, p. 97 and Pl. Ar. Rep. 4.8.1., for 1923-24, p. 93. • Mahavamsa, V, 12. In the Dipavansa (V, 54) they are referred to as Pubbåparaseliki. *Si-yu-ki, transl. by S. Beal, p. 221. • Above, Vol. XX, p. 9.
Compare The Life of the Buddha by Rockhill, p. 184. See also G. P. Malalasekera's Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, a.v. Aparaseliyi and Pubbmeliyi, where it is stated that according to the Kathāvatthu common tary they belonged to the Andhaka school'.
10 T. Wattori, On Yuan Chwang'. Travels in India, Vol. II, p. 218,
