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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
NO. 14-SHELARWADI CAVE INSCRIPTION
(1 Plate)
C. C. DAS GUPTA, CALCUTTA
[VOL. XXVIII
There is a well-known series of Buddhist caves at Shelarwadi, a place twenty miles north-west of Poona.1 There are at present altogether seven caves in this group. On the outer face of the Cave No. 1 there is an early Brahmi inscription which has been known for a long time. That inscription informs us that one Siagutapika, wife of the ploughman and householder Usabhanaka with her son, the householder Namda, residing at Dhēņukākada, made the gift of this cave. When I had gone to see these caves in January 1940, I discovered another inscription on the door-lintel of the proper left cell in the back side of the cave No. 2. Except one or two letters, the whole inscription was concealed under a thick coat of mud plaster. The mud plaster having been removed, the present record, a hitherto unknown inscription, was brought to light.
The inscription measures 4' x 1'1" and consists of five lines of writing. The last line, consisting of only three letters, is just below the end of the fourth line. The script is of the variety adopted in the undated inscrpitions of Kuda, Nos. 1-6, 11, 20, and may be ascribed to about the 2nd century A.D. With regard to the formation of individual letters it may be pointed out that a, gh, ch, t, dh, m, l, and h have two different forms each as found respectively in the following examples: ate (line 1) and balikaa (line 2); Ghapa and Sagha° (line 2); cha (lines 3 and 4); bhayata (line 1) and ti[k]aya (line 2); sidha (line 1) and Budha (line 2); dhama (line 3) and °mapito (line 5); bāli (line 2) and kulehi (line 4); Siha° (line 1) and vehi (line 4). Besides, s has four different forms, as in sidha (line 1), Sagha (line 2), saha (line 3) and savehi (lines 3-4). The medial vowels used are a, i, u, e and o. Among these, only has two different forms as found in siniya (line 1). The language used is Prākrita.
The object of this inscription is to record the gift of a chaitya hall by two ladies Budha and Sagha. The latter was the daughter of Ghapară, a female disciple of the elder (thera) Bhadanta Siha (Simha). There are certain interesting points in this inscription which deserve notice. Of the four names in this inscription two, viz., Sagha and Budha seem to be peculiar, as such names are usually found with some other suffix such as mitra, datta, etc. This inscription also gives us the evidence for the first time that this particular cave was meant to be the chaitya hall of the Buddhist monastery which was situated on this hill. Regarding this cave, Fergusson and Burgess remarked: "The front is entirely gone, and a thick wall has been built, to form a new front, a few feet farther in than the original, with two circular arched doors. The hall has four cells on the right, two in the back, besides a large shrine, and three on the left, a fourth being entirely ruined. In the shrine recess had stood a dâgoba, the capital attached to the roof as in the Kuda
1 This series of Buddhist caves was first noticed by the late Dr. John Wilson in 1850, J.B.B.R.A.S., Vol. III, part II, page 54, where he observes: "A little below the summit of that hill fronting the south-west, we found an excavation with four small cells, containing a yoni, and at present sacred to Shiva, which appeared to us, from a bench going round the excavation in front of them, to have been originally Buddhistical. On examining the hill more particularly, we came upon a considerable Vihar below them, running E.N.E. and containing about a dozen of cells. Here we found a Buddhist inscription of five lines, which we copied, and which we still preserve. It is very possible that some Chaitya may be in the neighbourhood". It was also noticed by G. H. Johns (Ind. Ant., Vol. V, pp. 252 f.), Fergusson and Burgess (The Cave Temples of India, pp. 246 f.), Burgess and Indraji (Inscriptions from the Cave Temples of Western India, pp. 38 f.), Burgess (Report on the Buddhist Cave Temples and Their Inscriptions, pp. 25, 92, Pl. XLVIII., No. 19), Lüders (A list of Brahmi Inscriptions, No. 1121).
Lüders, A List of Brahmi Inscriptions, No. 1121.
Bühler, Indische Palaeographie, Tafel III, Col. XV. Arch. Surv. W. Ind., Vol. IV. p. 84, eto
4
[The difference noticed is perhaps not a substantial one.-Ed.]
