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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailassagarsuri Gyanmandir
266
OLD BRĀHMĪ INSCRIPTIONS
13. SOME POINTS CONCERNING PERSONAL
HISTORY Our rendering of Aira as “ Lordly” requires a word of explanation. The first letter as it appears on the stone or in the estampages cannot but be read as ai. The correctness of such a reading is confirmed, no doubt, by the Sanskrit slokas quoted by Mr. Jayaswal from an old Oriya MS. But one must not lose sight of the fact that in these slokas, Ahira has been used as an alternative spelling. We have, moreover, sought to show that a similar letter occurring in the two Pabhosā inscriptions of Aşadhasena has been read by Dr. Vogel as va, the letter serving as the initial of the personal name Vaihidari. Should Aira be read on this ground as Vera, we have mentioned that there is no other alternative but rendering it " Hero” or “ Heroic," vera being the same word as vīra. Even if we adhere to the reading Aira, we do not quite understand why it should be interpreted as signifying " a descendant of Ila.” Rather keeping the two alternative spellings Aira and Ahira in the Sanskrit ślokas from the old Oriyā MS. in view, we have to think of a royal title, which can account for both of them. Such a royal title is undoubtedly Ayira which has been explained in the Jātaka-Commentary as meaning sāmi, “master” or “ lord," "a master as distinguished from a slave," that is to say, “an Arya, whose condition, according to the Artha-Šāstra, is not servitude.” 1 We still feel that Mr. Jayaswal's first note on Aira (JBORS, Vol. III, Part IV, p. 434) is something to the point : “The first word of the royal style is Aira. This word occurs in a Sātavāhana inscription and has been translated by M. Senart as 'noble' (Arya). I am inclined to take it as indicating the ethnic difference of Khāravela from his subjects (who were mostly Dravidians, or the mixed Aryo-Dravidians, for according to the Nátya-Sāstra, the people of Kalinga wore dark but not black)."
The personal names occurring in our old Brāhmi inscriptions have an importance of their own. We find that most of them are obviously Aryan names, viz., Kamma, Culakamma, Kusuma, Nākiya (Nāgita), Hathisaha. Hathisiha and Khiņā (misread Halakhina-Slakonā). Vadukha or Varikha, too, appears to be an Aryan name, Vadukha being a Prākrit equivalent of Vadavākşa, and Varikha that of Varekşu. As regards Kadampa or Kudepa (misread Vakadepa by Dr. Indraji, and Kudepa by Mr. Banerji),
1. Barhut Inscriptions edited by Barus and Sinha, sub poce" Aya."
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