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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
226
OLD BRAHMI INSCRIPTIONS
Sarayu and beholding the Eastern Kosala, going beyond Mithila, crossing the rivers Mala and Carmanvati, crossing the Ganges and the Sone, and proceeding further eastward to get from Kusaciracchada to what was called Magadha-kṣetra, the Magadha-territory (literally, "the Magadha-field ").1
There can be little doubt, as Mr. Jackson has sought to prove on the strength of two short Brahmi inscriptions, that Gorathagiri was but one of the two ancient names of the Barabar hills, the other being Khalatikapavata, which latter is met with in two of the Barabar Hill-Cave inscriptions of Asoka and in Patanjali's Mahabhāṣya (I. 2. 2). As the ancient capital of Magadha was known at the same time by two names, Girivraia and Rajagṛha, so, Mr. Jackson thinks, the Barabar hills were known at one time by two names, Gorathagiri and Khalatika-pavata, while, later on, they came to be known by the name of Pravaragiri, Pravara wherefrom the modern name Barabar was apparently derived.
The two Brahmi inscriptions, relied upon by Mr. Jackson in proposing his identification, are engraved on rocks in two different places, both of which are not far from the well-known caves dedicated by Asoka to the Ajivikas," and consist each of five syllabic letters, one of them recording the name of the hill as Gorathagiri and the other as Goradhagiri, the letterforms of the former bearing a close resemblance to those of the dedicatory inscriptions of Asoka, and the letter-forms and spelling of the latter to those of the Hathi-Gumpta inscription of Kharavela. On palæographic grounds, Mr. R. D. Banerji assigns the former to the Asokan age and places the latter a century later, going so far as to believe that the latter was actually engraved by one of the men who accompanied King Kharavela and took part in His Majesty's first invasion of Magadha.5 If it be as Mr. Jackson presumes, that the earlier inscription recording the name of the hill on which it was engraved as Gorathagiri was of the same age as two of the dedicatory inscriptions of Asoka recording the name of the hill on which they were engraved as Khalatika-pavata, we do not see any necessity for
1. Mahabharata, II, 20, 26-29, quoted with Rāmavatar Sarma's translation in JBORS; Vol. I, Part II, p. 161.
2. JBORS, Vol. I, Part II, p. 169.
3. The Lomasa Rishi cave is called Pravaragiriguha in an undated Sanskrit inscription belonging probably to the 7th century A. D.. JBORS, Vol. I, Part II, p. 169.
4. JBORS, Vol. I, Part II, p. 162.
5. JBORS, 1917, Vol. III, Part IV, p. 500. See Plates in JBORS, Vol. I, Part II, published by Jackson.
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