Jain Stupa and Other Antiquities of Mathura

Author(s): Vincent A Smith
Publisher: Vincent A Smith

Page 63

( 20 ) PLATE XIII.
Å VÅGAPATA, OR TABLET OF HOMAGE, SET UP BY SIVAMITRÂ. FIGURE 1 represents a fragment of an dyagapata of which more than half has been lost. The central object is among the parts missing. The ornaments include the lucky fish, which has been noticed in Plate VII, and beautifully executed flower and scroll designs. The slab was found by Dr. Burgess in 1887. The inscription at the base is in archaic characters apparently anterior to the Kushan period, and thus adds one more to the many proofs of the antiquity of the Jain worship at Mathura. The record, though incomplete, is sufficiently intelligible, and is as follows:
1. I. Nam uruhato Verithminunya Gotiputrasa Pothaya Saka ..
2. Kalaváfusa
3. .... Kudikeye Simitrúye dyagapato prati.
"Adoration to the Arhat Vardhamana! A tablet of homage was set up hy Śivamitr (of) the Kubika (family) (wite) of Gotiputra (Gauptiputra), a black serpent for the Pothayus und Saknus."
The historical significance of this brief document is explained as follows by Bühler -
"Some interesting historical information may be extracted from No. XXXIII, which records it gift hy Koliki Si[vajinitri, [the wife of Gotiputra, a black serpent for the Pothayas and Sakas.
Both Gotiputra and Kobiki Sivamitri were of noble or royal descent. This is indicated by their family names. Kosili, in Sanskrit Kausiki, means she of the race of Kubika' Kansika is the nomen gentila of Vievamitra and his descendants, the Vi våmitras, who form one of the ancient Vedio gotras. Numerous instances in the northern and southern inscription show that the queens and princesses were frequently called by the Vedic gotra-names, such as the Gautami, the Vatsi, the Vásish thi, the Gargi, otc. And the explanation is no doubt that these gotras originally were those of the Purohitas of the royal or noble families, from which the queens were descended, and that the kings were affiliated to them for religious reasons as the Srautasttras indicate. It seems, therefore, impossible to explain the epithet Kotiki otherwise than by the assumption that Sivannitril was descended from : royal race, which had been affiliated to the Kalikas.
With respect to Gotiputra, in Sanskrit Gauptiputra, it may be poiuto:l out that this name, which means the son of her of the Gauptw race, is borne by the second king of Sir A. Cunningham's inscription on the Torana of the Bharhut Stipa, where we read Gotiputrasa Agarajusa putena, in Sanskrit Gauptiputrasya Angaradyutah putrona. Though I am not prepared to identify the two Gotiputras, it is evident that the name was borne at least by one royal or princely personage. The epithet of our Gotiputru, a black serpent for the Pothayas and Sakas,' points also to his belonging to the warrior tribe. For, according to the analogy of other well-known epithets, such as rairimattebhasitha, it can only mean that he fought with the Pothayas and Sakas, and proved to them as destructive as the black cobra is to mankind in general.
The Pothayas are the Proshthas, whom the Mahabharata, Volume VI, puges 9, 61, and the Vishnupurana (ed. Hall, Volume II, page 179), name among the southern nations. In the latter passage they appear together with the Sakas and the Kokarakas. As both works include in their enumeration of the southern nations the Trigartas, who are known to be inhabitants of Northern India, the accuracy of their statements with respect to the seats of the Sakas and I'roshthas may be doubted. But it remains interesting that the two names are placed closely together in the Vishnu purana, and this juxta position is, as our inscription shows, not without foundation."
The characters of the inscription being archaic, the wars alluded to probably took place in the first century B. C. The Sakas may have been the Satraps (Kshatrapa) of Mathura.
Figure 2 of the plate represents a pretty bit of scroll work, well undercut.
Bühler in "Epigraphia Indio," Vol. 1, pp. 394, 396, Innor. No. XXXIII. Bühler's explanation of the formation of the names of quoens and princesses is not universally acoepted.