________________
200
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXXIV
88 a Prakrit form of Sanskrit udumbara (or udumbara), the epithet may indicate that the image of Ashtabhujasvāmin mentioned in our record was made of udumbara wood.
It is futher stated that the god Ashtabhujasvāmin was installed on the Sēta-giri which is, as is well known, mentioned in a Nasik inscription of the nineteenth regnal year of the Sātavāhana kiug Pulumāvi (c. 130-59 A.D.) in connection with the description of the vague supremacy of his father Gautamiputra Satakarpi over the whole of South India. The inscription under study poses he question whether Sēta-giri has to be identified with one of the hills surrounding the Nägarjunikonda valley, especially the Siddhaldhāri hill standing within 200 yards towards the north ot the findspot of our inscription. The words ësha bhagavān, 'this Lord', used in the ing. cription in relation to Ashtabhujasvāmin, seems to support the identification. Its mention in the Nasik inscription as a well-known range of hills in South India seems, however, to suggest that it was a general name of the range of hills of which the hill bearing the shrine of Ashtabhujasvāmin formed a part. Sēta-giri thus appears to have been the name of the range of which the Siddhaldhari hill near Nāgārjunikonda formed a part. It is said that there are one well on the Siddhaldhari hill and two caves on its slope. Two images of Kubëra are stated to have been found near the caves many years ago.
The statement that the said god was not removed from its place (sthanato=pi na chálito) but was installed on the Sēta-giri is not quite clear. But it may be a case of the re-installation of a deity at the same place where it was being worshipped for some time. The specific mention of the fact that it was not removed from its place probably suggests that the image in question was going to be taken to some other place. It may be conjectured that some foreign conquerors were in possession of the area and that one of their leaders wanted to carry the image home but that the idea was later given up. It may, however, be admitted that re-installation of the deity is not clearly suggested by the language of the epigraph. If, moreover, the expression rumbara-bhava really means that the image was cut out of the trunk of an udumbara tree standing on the hillock, the non-removal of the image may of course refer to its installation at the place where it was fashioned. It should, however, be pointed out that the ruins of the temple in which the inscribed slab has been found do not lie on the hill. Was the god Ashtabhujasvāmin housed in this temple at a later date?
The next part of the sentence referred to above states that the persons in question also caused the wall of the hill to be made variegated or decorated with sculptures) or painted (parvatasya cha prākāro chitäpito = parvatasya cha prākāras-chitrital). By the expression the wall of the hill is probably meant the enclosure around the shrine of Ashtabhujasvāmin standing on the hill. The word chităpita reminds us of the grant of a village for the purpose of the chitana (Sanskrit chitrana) of a Nasik cave, mentioned in the Nasik inscription referred to above.
Certain further activities of the persons concerned are also mentioned in the said sentence in its concluding part. They are the following: (1) a vāpi or well called Mahanandā was cleansed (i.e. re-excavated); (2) two tanks (tallāgāni 2) were excavated, one on the Sēta-giri and another in a locality called Mudērā ; and (3) some groves of palmyra trees were planted. Muďērā seems to be a locality in the neighbourhood of Nāgārjunikonda, although we are not sure about its identification. It is difficult to say whether the tadäga on the Sota-giri should have to be identified with the well on the Siddhalabari hill, to which reference has been made above.
l'ho above sentence constituting the main document is followed by a passage in prose, a stanza in the Upajātí metre and a sentence in prose, all referring to the ullakhaka of the document, the Ford no doubt meaning the engraver of the record. He is Vardhamanaka of the Sērbaka family
Select Inscriptione, p. 197, text lino 3. • Ses ibid, p. 198, text line 11; cf. below, Vol. XXXV, p. 7, text lino 8.
