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SEPTEMBER, 1881.]
MISCELLANEA.
perhaps that the sense has been misunderstood: all this is the fault of the engraver.
Below the 13th edict at Girnâr is a line of which the commencement has been destroyed. What is left reads
va sveto hasti sarvalokasukhâharo nama. Possibly the line accompanied a tracing of an elephant, now broken away, and I propose to translate it by simply supplying the pronoun
A NOTE ON THE WORD SIDDHAM USED IN INSCRIPTIONS.
For the benefit of those epigraphists who still adhere to Dr. Stevenson's translation of the word siddham, which frequently stands in the beginning of ancient Prakrit and Sanskrit inscriptions, by To the Perfect one', I call attention to two inscriptions (1) Amaravati fragment from a slab now in the British Museum, represented in Fergusson's Tree and Serpent Worship, pl. xciv, fig. 3 (where, however, the inscription is partly cut away, and what is left is indistinct), and (2) Cunningham, Arch. Reports, vol. V., pl. xv, No.. 20. The former begins with the phrase-f
MISCELLANEA.
, which can mean nothing but 'Success! adoration to the divine one' (i. e. Buddha). The first words of the latter are, according to the plate सिद्ध ओ नमो अरहतो महावीरस्ये, while the transcript has,-Siddham Aum(?) Namo Arahate Mahavirasya. Both are, no doubt, faulty, and the correct reading is probably सिद्धम् नमो अरहतो महावीरस्य - Success ! adoration to the Arhat Mahavira.' But, whether the reading be सिद्धर्मों or simply सिद्धम्, it is perfectly clear that the word siddham cannot contain the invocation of a deity. The correctness of the explanation which I have proposed, viz., to take siddham as the nom. neuter of the part. perf. pass. and as an equivalent of faf: success,' is attested by the fact that the latter word actually occurs for siddham, e. g. Cunningham Arch. Reports, vol. V., Pl. xli, H,सिद्धिः श्रीः सम्वत् १५७१. The Mahabhdshya, pp. 6 and 7 (Dr. Kielhorn's edition) asserts besides, that siddha was used as a mangala; see also, Bhânḍârkar, Ind. Ant., vol. V, p. 346. G. BÜHLER.
DAMBAL BUDDHIST INSCRIPTION OF §. 1017. At p. 185 ante, Mr. Fleet has published the text of an interesting inscription, which indicates that Buddhism still held a place among the natives of the Karnataka as.late as the end of the 11th century A.D. In his remarks, Mr. Fleet seems to confound the Buddhists with the Jains; but
I have used a facsimile and copy made from the slab by Dr. Burgess.
273
"That white elephant is in truth the benefactor of the whole world."
Between the legs of the elephant above the inscription at Khalsi is the word Gajatame,
which we translate, in the light of the Girnår legend, as
"The elephant par excellence, the great elephant."
though both sects used a very similar ecclesiastical nomenclature, it is almost always possible to discriminate clearly to which of them any image, inscription or document belonged; and it is very desirable that this should be carefully done, and the distinction attended to,-for no end of confusion has arisen from the mistake so frequently made, of regarding these two sects as almost identical. Even into books treating on mythology the error has found its way; in Birdwood's Industrial Arts of India, for example, (plate G, fig. 4) a figure of Pârávanâtha does duty for "the ninth avatar of Vishnu as Buddha," though one would have thought the Séshaphant over his head and the jewel on the breast might have sufficiently distinguished the Tirthankara.
In the inscription under notice, the Dêvi, figured at the head of the stone and invoked after Buddha, is Târâ. This name is known, I believe, among the Jains, but she holds no prominent place in their mythology-is not a édeanadért or yakshint to any of the twenty-four Tirthankaras,-while among the Mahayana sect of Buddhists, Arya-Târâdêvi stands almost first in favour among the female baktis. She belongs to Amôghasiddha, the fifth of the Jñânâtmaka Buddhas, and had temples dedicated to her worship at Buddha-Gays and elsewhere, and she is figured in the Nasik, Aurangâbâd and Elur Buddhist caves (ante, vol. IX, p. 115; Archeol. Rep. W. Ind., vol. III, p. 78; Cave Temples, pp. 133, 371, 384). Like Avalokitesvara or Karunarnava she is especially distinguished by her efforts for the salvation of men (Vassilief, Bouddisme, p. 125). Indeed in Nêpâl, and in the Kanheri caves, Arya-Avalokitesvara is figured with Lôchanâ (the sakti of Akshôbhya) at his right hand and Târâ at his left (see Cave Temples, pl. lv). She is represented on this slab, as usually among the Buddhists, holding a flower in her left hand, and an opening blossom apparently springs up behind her right side, while the hand, now broken, perhaps hung over the knee. It is curious to remark too that, in the inscription, she is addressed
Ibid. p. 35.
