Epigraphia Indica Vol 34

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

Page 39

16
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXIV
The inscription, in its mutilated form, mentions a monk named Phagula, a disciple of the reverend Dhara, and states that somebody connected with Phagula caused the fila or stone (no doubt the sculptured and inscribed slab bearing the inscription under study) to be made and apparently installed it at the residence of the Buddha (Budh-äväsa) in the Ghoshit-ärāma.
The Ghoshit-arama was a well-known Buddhist establishment at Kausambi, where the Buddha is stated to have stayed on many occasions. The Dhammapadaṭṭhakatha says that it was built for the Buddha's residence by Ghoshaka, the treasurer of king Udayana of Kausambi,1 the other contemporary Buddhist establishments at Kausambl known to Päli literature being those built by Kukkuta and Pavärika, two colleagues of Ghoshaka, and the Badarikäräma.
It is also noteworthy that according to the inscription the stone slab was apparently installed at the residence of the Buddha, or, at any rate, what was believed at that time to have been the place where the Buddha had lived. It may be recalled that another Kosam inscription, the exact findspot of which is unknown, refers to the promenade (chamkama) of the Buddha. All these tend to show that the Buddha's visit to and stay at Kausambl may not, after all, have been a myth, as has sometimes been thought. In any case, this inscription, together with a few others subsequently found in the excavation of the same area, proves that, at least in the first century A.D., the Buddhist establishment, the ruins of which have now been laid bare by excavation, was known as the Ghoshit-arama and, besides, contained a spot believed to have been the Buddha's residence.
TEXT'
1 Bhayamtasa Dharass amteväsisa bhikhusa Phagulasa
2 Budh Avase Ghoshit-äräme sava-Budhānām pujaye silā kā[ritā]......[*]
*****..
TRANSLATION
(This) slab has been caused to be made......of the monk Phagula, the disciple of the reverend Dhara, at the residence of the Buddha in the Ghoshit-arama for the worship of all the Buddhas.
G. P. Malalasekera, Dictionary of Pali Proper Names, Vol. I, p. 828, s.v. Ghosaka-setthi. Ibid., p. 612, s.v. Kukkuta.
Ibid., Vol. I, p. 194, s.v. Pavärika,
Ibid., p. 263, s.v. Badarikarama.
Above, Vol. XXIV, p. 212.
Cf. E. J. Thomas, The Life of Buddha, 3rd ed., 1949, p. 115, note 2.
From the photograph of the stone slab and an impression of the inscription kindly supplied by Shri G. R.
Sharma.
Only the lower part of the akshara ri exists, and ta can be confidently restored. It is permissible to conjecture that some such werds as patithapita cha have broken away after käritä.