Indian Antiquary Vol 43

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 24

20
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JANUARY, 1914
“He should not, in every case, wait for the express command (of the teacher) like an unbroken horse for the whip (of the rider), but like a broken horse which sees the whip (of the rider) he should commit no evil act."10
I gather from this that galiyassa = Sanskrit galitásva or gadita ívali means ' an unbroken, idle horse,' and is probably a technical expression as well as âinna ="ajanya,âjaneya 'a thoroughbred'18 the contrast of it. In the same text, XXVII, 16, gali-gaddaha means'a bad, lazy donkey'; and khalumka,* khalokzan'a bad bullock,' used ibid, XXVII, 3, is explained by Devendra as meaning gali-vrishabha ' a lazy bullock.' Moreover, Sanskrit lexicographers give us the word gali and gadi'a young, but unbroken, lazy bullock,' which is clearly a shortening from galio or gadi vrishabha. These facts permit me to assume the existence of an old word gadi, gadita or gali-, galita-, which means 'idleness' and 'idle, lazy,' and moreover as a term for a horse an unbroken, bad horse.' As, now, *gada, if it existed, must have been a shortening from *ga la va and mean an unbroken horse,' so vigala is a shortening from *vigada wa, and means *agadaíva, a broken steed, a thorough bred'; and this is an epithet well fit for the noble horse Kanthaka, which Pischel 19 assumes to have been meant by the statue of a horse on the pillar. Consequently, silá viga labhî means 'a block of stone bearing a horse,' and denotes, of course, the slab on which the horse stood and the statue itself.
As for athabhagiye, I think Dr. Fleet is fairly right in suggesting that it means 'the king's share of grain,' i.e., the tax paid in grain. The land of the Sakya clans where the village of Lumbini was situated, was famous from times long before for its rice-crops, and we know from Kautilya, p. 60 etc., that a technical term for 'taxes received in the shape of grain' is bhaga. But we gather from the same source that the king was entitled to take at least one-fifth or one-fourth of the whole supply of grain, and not one-eighth as Dr. Fleet suggests. So ashtabhagya cannot mean this; it would rather be possible that it could mean ash!a (varsha) bhagya, i.e., that the village should be entitled to the grain-tax for eight years. But I admit that this is wholly uncertain. However, it must refer to the grain-tax,' for bali is taxes for religious purposes 'according to Kautilya 20 and so we have here two fiscal terms.
Consequently the whole inscription may be rendered somewhat in the following way
“His Majesty King Priyadarsin came here himself twenty years after his anointment, and, worship having been performed, because here was born Buddha the saint of the Sakyas he had a slab of stone bearing a horse made and a stone-pillar raised up. Because here was born the venerable one the village of Luạmini was made free from religious taxes21 and entitled to the grain-tax for eight years."
MISCELLANEA. KAYASTHA AND KAYATHAN
Dravidian word, the question of the ethnic origin of In connection with the history of writing in this Kdyatha will be set at rest; we shall accept
KAyathaus & Dravidian element. Would some country, I have been trying to find out the ethnic
one from the Madras Presidency enlighten us on origin of the writer-caste Kayastha. The original
the philology of Kdyathan? I may also mention form of Kdyastha seems to be Kayatha, which is the
hero that Sirindstara is an important subdivision general and popular name of the easte. Kayastha
of the writer-caste. as a Samskrit word is clearly meaningless. It is &
This, too, does not appear mere fanciful restoration of Kdyatha.
to be an Aryan word, and it might give some elue to I am told that in Telugu Kayatha (Kdyathan)
our Southern scholars in tracing the origin. means papers,' records. If this is native
K, P. J.
16 Translation by Jacobi, S. B. E. XLV. 3.
17 This seems to correspond to Pkt. galiyaasa; but Devendra gives galyaiva, which might also be & possible rendering.
18 Devendra explains dinna akirna, vinua, which would fit better to the form of the word; but I cannot make out the sense of it. Op. Leumann Aug. S. A. V. 19 L c. p. 725.
20 See Dr. F W. Thomas, J. R. A.S., 1909, p. 461. 21 Or: 'made to pay only a quit-ront (according to the suggestion of Sir Charles Lyall, J.R. 4, S.. 1908, p. 850 f.)..