________________
192
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
[VOL. XXVI.
of the characters on these tablets often forbid an aceurate decipherment of the inscriptions. But on examining some of them on which the inscriptions are somewhat clear, I found that at least two give the same dharani as is contained in the present inscription, together with a few extra lines at the beginning and at the end.
The practice of immuring sacred objects including inscribed religious texts inside votive stūpas took & somewhat different form in some Buddhist sites. At Nālandā and Paharpur, for instance, hoards of lumpe of clay, encasing two plaques with figures of Buddha, Tară, etc., or inscribed with the Buddhist formula, have been found within the core of single votive stūpas. The origin of this custom seems to be explained by & passage in the Divyāvadäna' in which the Buddha enumerates the different ways of worshipping a chaitya, viz., by circumambulation, throwing a lump of clay, placing a heap of mukta-flowers, putting & garland, dedicating a lamp and anointing with perfumes.
TEXT.
Obverse. 1 * I * r I 48 ART | Arrat(at)fufen १ जुलु बुलु । शतरश्मिसंचोदिते । सर्वतथागताभि3 tanufafaran I TUTTA I (T)&TUTETI 4 fafar farer anufafea i H i6 # TAI ANA ATH I F&qythat I was 6' grafata ir
(at)fantofelufer
1 The tablets referred to here are two of the six hundred tablets that were found together in 1915-18 in Stapa Site No. 2 and are now in the Arobrological Museum at Nalanda, bearing the register numbers 2-42 and 2.193. The text of the former is given below:
1 oth namo bhagavate vipula-vadana-kanchan-Akshi2 pta-prabhāsa-kë(7)tu-pürvva-tathāgataya namo bhagava3 to Säkya-inunaye tathāgatäy=ărhatë samyak-saun vu bu)ddhaya 4 tad-yathi Orh vô(bodhi vo(bo)dhi vo(bo)dhi sarva-tathagata-góchara dhara 5 har hars prahara prahara mahi-võ(bodhi-chitta-dbare chulu chulu kata-raimi-sam6 cbodite sarva-tathagat-abhishikte guna-gana-matë vu(bu)ddha-gan-avaha7 po mili mili gagana-tala-sarva-lathagat-adhishthite na8 bhastalē sama sama sarva-papa-prasamané sarva-påpe-vibodhano 9 hul hulu mahi-vo(bo)dhi-márga-samprasthite Barva tathigata-pratishthita 10 buddhē svāhā sarta-tathagala-vyavalokite jaya jays sv.. 11 ha hutu huru jaya-mukhē svāhā ēka-chaitya-kritēna 12 laksha (ksham) kritā bhava[n]ti pratitya-samutpădată
13 five illegible letters, followed by a symbol denoting vajra. The portions italicized above are somewhat different from the corresponding portions of the text appearing in the stone incription edited here. No. 2-193 gives the same text in 11 lines, the only differenoe being that the word dhara (1. 4 above) is repeated twice and that after jaya-mukh (1.11 above) it repeate the Buddhist formula ye dharmd, etc., instead of the portion beginning with Ika-chastya-kritena.
. Rxcavations at Paharpur, Memoirs of the Archæological Survey of India, No. 56, p. 83. Divydvadana, ed. Cowell and Neil, pp. 78-79.
