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No. 23]
PESHAWAR POTSHERDS WITH KHAROSHTHI WRITINGS
127
VIII This piece contains only two letters, both clear enough. They read:
pha 4 The letter pha is distinct, only its arm on the left is a little longer than usual. The two letters may be a name of a person, derived from Phalgu (Phagu Phau).
This sherd has three letters. They read:
8a ghe cha The second letter looks more like ge, but it is taken for granted that it had a hook attached to its right to the lower end of the vertical which is now mostly effaced.
The preserved portion is almost identical with the beginning of another potsherd inscription (No. 444 of the Peshawar Museum, C. I. I., II, 63, Pl. XII-3 ;-cf. also ibid. 121, Pl. XXIII-la) which is likewise fragmentary but which has at least seven letters preserved, reading :
sarghe chatudise Ka In the light of this, the present inscription may also be translated as :
in the Sangha (of the four quarters) '.
This piece contains six complete letters and a very small remnant, in the beginning, of another.' They are very faint, but can be read by applying moisture to the surface. The last two are decidedly gra ha. The preceding one looks like to but it is possibly ri, the upper end of the medial i stroke having been effaced. And what precedes it is pa. Thus this is a complete word parigraha. The first two letters are na na, evidently the plural genitive of a word ending in na, such as gana. The reading is thus :
....na na parig(r)aha 'is the acceptance of....'. This may be compared with the final expression of the Wardak vase inscription of the year 51 (C.I.I., II, 170, Pl. XXXIII): Mahasanghigana parigraha..
The present inscription may also be taken to end with the word parigraha itself, though what preceded cannot be restored now.
XI This potsherd has six signs. The first is only partially preserved. It cannot be read with certainty, but judging from the extant remnant, it might have been kha. The second letter is comparatively very small and faint. It looks like a dha. The third is decidedly a sam, though a portion of the subscript TM is gone. The fourth syllable, though perfect, is rather unusual. Ita upper part is that of g and the subscript is either a y or a m, or possibly the whole combination is meant to denote some other sound. The fifth letter is mi, with the stroke of the medial i abnormally long and its lower end bending towards the left-rather uncommon features. The last letter is obviously & cha, though its lower half is gone. The whole may thus read:
[kha ?] dha(?) sam gya (or gam) mi cha It is not possible to make out any sense of this, though presumably we have a reference here to a sangha Buddhist congregation'. Or is it perhaps a personal name Samghamicha (Samghamitra)
Owing to the faint nature of the writing, the draftaman has missed several strokes with the result that his drawing has not come out perfect.
