________________
No. 46–POOTPRINT SLAB INSCRIPTION FROM NAGARJUNIKONDA
(1 Plate) D. C. BIRCAR and A. N. LAHIRI, OOTACAMUND
(Received on 21.11.1958)
In the course of the excavations conducted by the Department of Archaeology at the wellknown Buddhist site of Nagarjunikonda, a monastic establishment with a four-winged monastery, a Stüpa and a Chaitya-griha was completely exposed in the year 1955-56 at the site marked V-6. The discovery was briefly noticed in the Indian Archaeology, 1955-56-A Review, p. 24. In this connection, reference wae made to the discovery of a stone slab, bearing the representation of the Buddha's feet and a small inscription engraved on it, near the entrance of the Stupa. According to the said notice, the inscription records that 'the sacred feet were of Buddha and were designed and consecrated by or for the Mahāvihāravāsins of the Theravāda-Vibhajjavāda school of Ceylon in a Vihāra described as Dharana-vihåra situated on the Praveņi'.' It is further observed that the Mahāvihāravāsins are described as 'adepts in reading the marks on the human body and fixing horoscopes which constitute the eighth sisana (abbhuta) of the navanga promulgated by Buddha'. Unfortunately, the statements regarding the contents of the epigraph are full of errors. They are apparently based on a defective transcript of the record. There is really no mention in the inscription of a Buddhist monastery called Dharana-rihāra, no description of the Mahāvihāravasins of the Theravāda-Vibhajjavāda school of Ceylon as experts in reading the marks on human bodies and preparing horoscopes and no reference to the eighth sāsana of the Buddha.
Similar footprint slabs, sometimes uninscribed and sometimes bearing inscriptions, bave been discovered at variou: early. Buddhist sites including those of Amaravati and Nagarjunikonda. It is well known that, in early Buddhist art, the Buddha was generally represented by symbols and one of the most popular symbols was his feet. A Nagarjunikonda sleb of this kind is called a patipadā (pratipadā) in the inscription it bears, while the expressions by which it is indicated in the Amaravati inscriptions are paduka(or pătuka)-paļa (pădukā-patta) and patuka (pādukā).“ The Nagarjunikonda slab under study bears the representation of the two soles of two feet placed side by side with that of the Bodhi tree in railing, flanked by two human figures, on one side. The niost prominent symbol engraved on each of the soles is the chakra. Behind this are an ankusa, & Näga symbol, a triratna on chakra and a pair of fish with a sankha nearby, while in front of it are two Näga symbols, a svastika, a srivatsa and a pürna-ghata with a farkha near it. The five toes in front of the above bear respectively & stambha, an ankuća, another indeterminable symbol, a pair of fish and a triratna on chakra. The inscription under study is engraved in & rectangular space touching the toes of the feet.
1890 op. cit., Plate XXXIX, C. 2 Macron over e and o to indicate the length of the vowels has not been used in this article. • Coomaraswamy, History of Indian and Indonesian Art, p. 31.
See above, Vol. XX, p. 37.
*Cf. Monier-Williams, Buddhism, pp. 510 ff., 520 ff.; Burgess, Buddhist Stūpus of Amaravali, pp. 97 ff. and Plates XLIII, 14; LII, 6 and 8; LIII, 1; MASI, No. 54, Plate XIXa ; Marshall, Sanchi, Plates LXXXVIII, 226, 75b; LXXXVII, 60a ; LXXXII, 42b; Allan, Catalogue of Coins (Ancient India), pp. o, oi, cl, 131, 158-60, 273, etc.
( 247 )
