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156
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(June, 1904.
dharmma and Buddha in the first line, and sarvoa and again Buddha at the end of the second. A few more syllables can be made out with the help of the photo-lithograph, though a deciphering of the whole seems to be out of the question. I read :
1 Deyadhar[m]oyan Sa ........ kutom[bi]nya Buddha ....... Va[bri]y&ya 2 da(1)va .......................... (Ba]rve-satvana[n] Buddha
| tvây To judge from these fragments, the inscription appears to have been entirely in Sanskrit and to have recorded the gift of Buddhist lay-woman. From the analogy of numerous similar Buddhist inscriptions the last sentence may be restored with tolerable certainty: [yad-atra punyai tadbhavatu sa]rva-satvdnd[] Buddhatváya; 'whatever religious merit (there is) in this (act), let it be for the attainment of the condition of a Buddha by all sentient beings. The few traces of letters which are still visible on the plate, would conform to this reading. The alphabet is of a later type than that used in the majority of the Mathura inscriptions. The characters closely resemble those found in a Buddhist image inscription from Mathara dated in 135, which date by common consent is referred to the Gupta era; compare especially the ma.10 In my opinion the present inscription must belong to approximately the same time. Nos. 42, 43, and 44.- Mathurd Buddhist insoriptions on the pedestals of statues ; edited by Rajendralala Mitra, Journ. Beng. As. Soo. Vol. XXXIX. Part I. pp. 128, 129, Nos. 11 and 12, and Plate ; and by Dowson, Journ. Roy. 48. Soo. New Ser.
Vol. V. pp. 187, 188, Nos. 18, 19, and 24, and Plate. The general purport of these three inscriptions, all of which are in pure Sanskrit, has been recognised by the two editors, but with the help of the facsimiles and in analogy to the dedicatory phrases of similar inscriptions their transcripts can be considerably corrected. I read and translate these inscriptions as follows: Dowson, No. 24:
1 Deyadharmaya Sákyabhikshoh Sangharakshi
2 tasya [HR] Yad=atra panya[mi) tatusarva-[sa]+[t]Y[Anan] [11] “ This (is) the votive offering of the Sakya mendicant Samgharakshita. Whatever religious merit (there is) in this (act), it (belongs to all sentient beings." Rajendralala Mitra, No. 12; Dowson, No. 19 :
1 Déyadbarmômyar SAkyabhikshor-Dharmadásanya [M'] Y
2 d-atra punya[in ta]n-matá-(pi]tr6[b] sarva-sat[t"]vind[m] cha [*] “This (is) the votive offering of the Sakya mendicant Dharmadase. Whatever religious merit (there is) in this (act), it (belongo) to (his) parents and all sentiont beings." Rajendralala Mitra, No. 11 ; Dowson, No. 18:
Deyadharmó-yam Sakyabhikshôr=bhadanta-Brahmasomasya [ll] Yad=atra pagyam
tal-bhavatu sarva-sat[t]vânâmanuttara-jfân-Avaptayê 11 " This is) the votive offering of the Sakya mendicant, the venerable Brahmasóma. Whatever religious merit (there is) in this (act), let it be for the attainment of supreme knowledge by all sentient beings."
The form of the letters, especially of the ma and na, point to the period of the Gupta rule at Matburi as the time of the engraving of these inscriptions.
• Gupta Inscriptions Corp. Innar. Ind. Vol. III., p. 288, No. 88.
10 I admit, however, that a similar ma, by the side of an older ma, is found already in dated in Sax. 88 of mahardja Divaputra Huviahla ; 100 above, p. 30, No. 9.
Mathurineeription
