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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXIV
number of inscriptions of the reign of Virapurushadatta have been discovered at Nagarjunikonda, it is not impossible that it is the same king's reign which was referred to in the record under study. The date is the king's regnal year. ..., furst day of the second fortnight of summer (i.e. Chaitrasudi 1). The Buddhist monastery on the Chula-Dhammagiri (i.e. Kshudra-Dharmagiri,
the little Dharmagiri' as opposed to the Maha-Dharmagiri or 'the big Dharmagiri ') situated to the east of the city of Vijayapuri, is already known froin another Nägārjunik da inscription and has been identified with the present Naharăllabodu hill. The inscription obviously meant to record the dedication of a structure in favour of certain Buddhist achariyas (āchāryas), teachers', described as achantarāj-achariga and sakasamaya-parasamaya-sa........
The second of the two epithets seems to suggest that the said teachers were experts in expounding the doctrines of their own religion as well as of those of the religious beliefs of others since the concluding akshara (i.e. sa) may be supposed to have been a part of an expression like samyakparagāna”. No expression like sakasamaya-parasamaya-samyak-pāraga has been noticed so far in any early inscription; but it reminds us of the passage proficient in the treatises of his own school of philosophy (sva-samaya) as well as in those of others (para-samaya)' occurring in the description of the celebrated Jain savant Bhatt-Akalanka of Karnātaka in an inscription of the sixteenth century from Bilgi in the North Kanara District of Bombay State. The epithet para-samaya-patu, proficient in the doctrines of other [religions]', occurs in the description of a Jain scholar in the Masulipatam plates: of the Eastern Chalukya king Amma II (middle of the tenth century A.D.).
The interpretation of the other epithet is more difficult. The word achamta, meaning' excessive', occurs in the expression ackanta-hita-sukhāya (Sanskrit atyafa-hita-sukhāya), 'for the excessive welfare and happiness', in one of the Nāgārjunikonda inscriptions ;' but that meaning does not suit the context, unless it is believed that some letters were inadvertently omitted after the word and that rāj-achariyānam (i.e.' of the king's teachers') is to be read separately. But the same expression apparently occurs in another Nāgārjunikonda inscription where Vogel suggested the reading [bhadam]ta-raj-achariyāng. The expression achamtaräj-achariya would mean 'teachers of (or from) Achamtrarāja' or better 'teachers of the Achamtarăja school or community'. Unfortunately we do not know of any king or locality called Achamtarāja or a community of Buddhist teachers characterised by that name. The name Achanta reminds us of Achenta which is & village in the Narasa puram Taluk of the West Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh.
1 Above, Vol. XX, p. 22.
* See ibid., Vol. XXIV. p. 272, where the epithet has been interpreted differently on the strength of Kundakundācharya's Samayasāra, according to which saka-samaya and para-damaya moans respectively
the soul which is concentrated in rgbt conduct, belief and knowledge and is self-absorbed' and 'the soul which stands in the condition determined by kar man end is absorbed in the non-solf'. But this interpretation does not appear to suit the context.
* Cf. ibid., Vol. XXVI]), p. 296. • Ibid., Vol. XX, p. 22. ,text line
Loo. cit., textli ne 1.
• Seo 4.R.Ep, 1926, Nos. B 898 700. MGIPC_81-46 DGA59-14-2.62 - 450.
