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No. 23] BRAHMI INSCRIPTIONS FROM BANDHOGARH
169 (Nos. XI. XIII), puttrena and pauttrena (No. VII), varddhatu (No. IX) and wrongly in khānitta fór khānita (No. VII). N has been used for throughout, except in charaṇā, punya (No. VII), and for n in Bhimasena (No. I). Amusvāra has been omitted in many places. S has been used for both & and sh except in rare instances, e.g. satehi (No. VII). The following forms of ordinals are noteworthy: pathame, padhame (Skt. prathame, Nos. II, eto.), be, dvo, bitiye (Nos. VII, VIII), dona, donar, dornan (Skt. dvayoh, Nos. II-VI), ekapan (Skt. ekapafchädat, No. I), chhäsita (Skt. shadasīti, Nos. II-VI). Other interesting Prakrit words are : sahiyam or sahiyaṁ (Nos. II, etc.) for Skt. sahitam, vāvatena (Skt. vyāpritēna, Nos. VIII, IX), vāyāmasälä (Skt. vyāyāmatāla, No. XVII), vadhatu (Nos. II, etc.), vadhatu (Nos. III, etc.) for Skt. vardhatu, lätā (with plural lātāni). in the sense of Pkt. lena, Skt. layana, 'a cave', hati, Skt. jhafi (No. VIII), 's small shrub', chagavāra (Päli changavära), '& vessel' (Nos. II-VI), and kathikärika-kamāra, 'a carpenter' (No. I). Feminine form for masculine seems to have been used in Rakhitikāe side by side with the correct form Rakhitikasa (No. V) and in Chelaet (Nos. II, etc.). Proper names in many instances end in ka, e.g. Phagusamaka (No. I), Phaguhathika, Datika (Nos. II-IV, VI), Jivanaka (No. VII), eto.
The main group of the inscriptions speaks of three generations of kings. These kings are Mahārāja Vāsițhiputa siri-Bhimasena (year 51), inis son Mahārāja KochhIputa Pothasiri (years 86 to 88) and his son (?) Mahārāja Kosiliputa Bhattadeva (year 90). Of these rulers, so far only the name of Mahārāja Bhimasena was known from the painted inscription of the year 52 on the Ginja hill in the Rewah State, situated at a distance of more than 100 miles towards the north-east of Bāndhogarh, as well as from & seal discovered during the excavations at Bhiţā. The metronymic Vāsithiputa is found in the Bāndhogarh inscription (No. I) and the Bhita seal but not in the Ginja inscription. The present inscription offers the earliest date for this ruler as also valuable information about his son and grandson. It will also appear from our discussion below that the year 86 in the reign of Pothasiri was marked by a great activity, as this is the year during which many of the cave dwellings were excavated. Nos. VIII-IX of the year 86 record the donation of Magha or Māgha who was the Minister of Foreign Affairs of king Pothasiri and was the son of the Minister Chakora. Another cave (cf. No. X) likewise owed its existence to the munificence of a minister of the same king. With these preliminary remarks I shall now turn my attention to the inscriptions individually.
The earliest dated inscription (No. I) is found on the back wall of a rock-cut cave situated between the Ganesh Pahār and Rāmagiri at a distance of about 3 miles to the north-east of Gopalpur by the side of a stream. The inscription, which is in 5 lines, is dated the 8th day of the 5th fortnight of Varsha of the year 5! in the reign of Mahārāja Väsithiputa (Väsishthiputra) Bhimasena and records the construction of & cave-dwelling by & guild of merchants including & goldsmith and an artisan(?).
In the Ganesh Pahār area, a group of five inscriptions engraved in five different caves contains more or less one and the same text (Nos. II-VI). All these records are dated the 5th day of the first fortnight of Hemanta of the year 86 in the reign of Mahārāja Kochhiputa (Kautsiputra) Pothasiri (Praushthasri) and record the construction of caves, the donation of a garden (ārāma) and a vessel (chagavāra) by Rakhitika (Rakshita), whose grandfather was & merchant of Kaugāmbi, and by Chela', son of a merchant, together with their sons. It is interesting to note that one of these is called the 'traders' cave' (sārthika) and another & mandapa (madhava) cave And yet another a chhata cave which may mean an umbrella (chhatra) cave or a cave for the novives (chhätra).
1[In many of the inscriptions (cf. Nos. VI-VII), ~ often has a form that closely resembles t. It is not impossible that the intended reading of what has been read as lalà or lata is land or lāna from layanakaLaanaa, layana-laana. It is interesting to note that layana ooours in the same sense in No. XI-Ed.]
[The roading of the name seems to be Chala.-Ed.)
