Epigraphia Indica Vol 34

Author(s): D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 31

EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[Vol. XXXIV The purpose of the epigraph is to record the installation of an object, the name of which has been lost at the end of line 1, although there is little doubt that it was a Buddhist image on the podestal of which the inscription was incised.
The name of the person responsible for the installation is likewise lost. But he is stated to have been related to a Saddhyavihari of the Buddhist monk named Dharmanandin who was & Dharma-kathika. The expression dharma-kathika (Páli dhamma-kathiko) means 'a preacher', while säddhyavihari stands for Pāli saddhivihāri (Sanskrit särdham-viharin) and means 'one's fellow priest living at the same monastery' in Pali and 'a fellow student' in Buddhist Sanskrit.
The installation of what was no doubt a Buddhist image was made on the vedi of (i.e. built by) Manādandanāyaka Hummiyaka at the Sakka-vihāra or the sakra or Sākya monastery. The word vedi in the present context seems to mean a raised platform. The name Hummiyaka no doubt suggests the person's foreign origin. He seems to have been a Mahädandanayaka (i.e. a commander of forces or a military governor) in the service of the Kushāna king Kanishka I.
The concluding sentence of the record, which is fragmentary was apparently similar to one generally found in the dedicatory inscriptions of the Mahāyāna Buddhists. The intention was to state that the donation of the gift (no doubt referring to the installation of the Buddhist image in question) was expected to benefit the donor's parents, teachers and others. Many inscriptions specify in this context the benefit as anuttara-jhan-āvāpti (i.e. attainment of the supreme knowledge) or hita-sukha (i.e. welfare and happiness) of the persons indicated. .
TEXT:
1 Siddham. [ll*] mahsā]rājasya Kanishkas]ya (sam] 4 h[o] 1 [di] 1 [l*) etasyam purvvāyam
bhiksho[r]=Dha[r]mmanand[is]ya dhe[r]mMA-[kathi]kasya sāddhyavihärisya [bha)...... 2 pratishthäpayati mahädandan[a]yaka-Hummiyaka-V[e]dyam Sakkal-vihäre [*] anena
deyadharmma-parityāgena mātā-pitsiņāra acha? .......
2. Inscription of Year 92
The inscription consists of four lines of writing covering an area about 94 inches in length and 4 inches in height. Excepting a, k, r, etc., and conjuncts as well as consonants endowed with vowel marks, individual letters are a little more than 1 inch in height. The right-hand side of the inscribed stone is broken away, though it is difficult to say whether some letters at the end of the lines are lost. This is because the inscription can be somehow interpreted as it is.
The characters are similar to those of the epigraph edited above. But there is no instance of the use of mand h of the 'Eastern Gupta'type. The symbols for 1, 2,5 and 90 occur in the epigraph. As regards language and orthography also, the epigraph closely resembles the other inscription, though Prakrit influence is more considerable in it and there is no case of the reduplication of a
1 Cf. above, Vol. XXXIII, p. 250, text line 3 ; p. 262, text line 2; below, p. 11, text lino 4, eto. * From impressions. • Expressed by symbol.
The intended word sooms to have been bhikaneya-bhikshoh. A number of letters are lost at the end of the line.
The anwendra sign is engraved to the right of the akshara dyd. The akahana wa had been originally omitted and was later engraved below the line between dydish and kla. The intended word is achariya (Sanskrit acharya). A number of letters are lost at the end of the line . This is No. B 788 of 4. R. Bp., 1968-69.