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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXI
The inscription bears a dato. Its reading and interpretation are, however, not entirely beyond doubt. The passage in question, with which the record begins, roads : rājno Arya-Visaghamitrasya savachhare which is followed by three aksharas and two symbols. These three aksharas read satāļhe ; but the following two numerioal symbols have a rather peculiar appearance. The first of these resembles the symbol for 7 with a short horizontal line on its head. The right end of this top stroke joins & curve with its opening downwards. The symbol may possibly be taken to stand for 100. The second sign looks like an early symbol for 8 turned from left to right. The expression satăthe seems to oontain the words data and ashta and to indioate the number 108. Thus the whole passage appears to stand for Sanskrit: rājkah Arya-Visakhamitrasya saívatsare Sat-ashte (-asht-ottara-bate) 108. The record therefore seems to have been engraved in the year 108 of an vnspecified ora during the reign of a king named Arya-Vibakhamitra.
Further details of the date are given in the following passage which reads: gimha-pakhe sama 8 divasa pachame 5. The symbol read here as 8 resembles the second of the two symbols discussed above. But the passage preceding the symbol does not offer any satisfactory sense unless it is amended as gimha-pakhe sa(a)(tha*]mā(me)=Sanskrit grishma-pakshe ashtame. The exact date of the record under study thus may be the fifth day of the eighth fortnight of the summor season in the year 108 of an unspecified era. Considering the palaeography of the inscription and Bihar's association with the Kushānas of Kanishka's house, the era seems to be no other than the Kanishka or Saka era of 78 A.D. The year quoted in the inscription therefore appears to correspond to 186 A.D. The eighth fortnight of grishma corresponds to the second half of purnimänta Aghadha. Thus the day referred to in the record may be Sala 108, Ashadha-sudi 5. As the Mauryan polish, noticed on the vessel bearing the epigraph, went out of fashion long before this age, the inscription seems to have been engraved on an old vessel.
The object of the ingoription is recorded in the following two sentences. The first of these reads : bhagarato achariyasya kude upanite-Sanskrit bhagavate ächāryāya kundam upanītam, or bhagavatah acharyasya kundam upanitan. The word upanita means presented'. The sentence therefore refers either to the kunda or vessel having been presented to the venerable acharya or teacher probably by bis pupils, or to the vessel belonging to the teacher having been offered as a present to some deity. There is little doubt that the vessel referred to is the one bearing the inscription under study. That, however, the stone vessel was not a present of the pupils to their teacher seems to be suggested by the following sentence with which the inscription ends. This yentence reads: Mahanadake Phagunadike kiti-bhutika-mita hi kude upanita bhagavato-Sanskrit : Mahanadakam Phalgunadikāṁ (cha uddibya) kirts-bhutika-mitram hi kundam upanitam bhagavatah. It seems that the vessel, used by the teacher during his life time, was offered by his pupils to the river deities, Mahanada and Phalgunadi, probably after the teacher's death. The epithet kirti-bhūtika-misra applied to the vessel seems to indicate that it was believed to be associated with the fame and power of the deceased teacher. The vessel was probably dedicated at the waters of the junction of the Mahanada and the Phalgunadi. The Mahanada is no doubt the present Mabana which runs about 2 miles away from the findspot of the insoription. It meets the river Dhovă, which runs about 4 miles from the place, at a distance of about 6 miles. This Dhová is now a branch of tbe holy river Phalgu and seems to have been known by the name Phalgu in the age of the insoription. It is not impossible to think that the junction of the two rivers then lay near the findspot of the inscription at Kailvan. The casting of a vessel into waters in
1 See Ojha, Palacography of India, Plate LXXIV (a). Cf. the sixth symbol for 100 quoted from the coins of the Western Kahatrapas and the third and sixth symbols for 200 quoted respectively from the inscriptions of Aboks and the grants of the kings of Valabhl.
! A branch is sometimes regarded as the main river oven now,
