Two Kharosthi Inscriptions from Taxila

Author(s): F. W. Thomas
Source: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, (Apr., 1916), pp.
279-285
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25189425 .
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 IX

TWO KHAROSTHI INSCRIPTIONS FROM TAXILA

Bv F. W. THOMAS

I. A Copperplate Inscription, Mepihapxvs

This official
designation, belonging to Seleucid and
Ptolemaic times, is not a quantity that we should expect
to see expressed in Indian letters; but to find it a second
time is more than surprising, and it may be termed
significant, more especially as both occurrences to
belong
the limited range of Kharosthi inscriptions.
For a notice of its occurrence in one such inscription,
with particulars of its use in Creek, I ma}' refer to the
article "A (.{reek Official Title in a Kharosthi Inscription",
published in the Festgrvss fiir Professor E. Windisch

(Leipzig, 1914), pp. 362-5.

The second inscription was discovered at Shah-Dheri,
in a
stupa, No. 14, next to the one, No. 13, from which was
obtained the Taxila vase. In the Journal of the Asiatic

Society of Bengal for 1855, pp. 328-9, Mitra

Rajendralala
mentions it as follows :?
"
No. 3 of Plate xv is the facsimile of an inscription found
hy Capt. Pearse, of the Madias Cavalry, in a small mound of
Shah Dhairi, on the high road from llawal Pindi to Uazara.
The record was originally inscribed on a narrow of copper
strip
di inches by Is of an inch, which has been, apparently by some
accident, broken into four fragments; tho characters are Arian
and the language is Pali. I have seen a tentative reading by
Mr. E. Thomas, of the Civil Service, in which occur the words
' *
ayanachandra', vivekavphala', but have not as yet been
able to make out its purport."

The inscription was also described by Cunningham in

vol. ii (pp. 124-5, with pi. lix) of the Archa)oIogical
Survey Reports, and subsequent]}' by Mahfimahopadl^ava

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280 TWO KHAROSTHI INSCRIPTIONS FROM TAXILA

Haraprasad Sastri in the JASB. for 1908

(pp. 363-5,
with photograph) : from the latter account it appears to
be now, in a defective condition, in the possession of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal.

Cunningham's reading was as follows:?

samvatsara (dasa) miti 10 tena Sabhayakena
thuba p>ratistavito matapita puyae agharaca
puyaye.
This is greatly improved by tbc Mahamahopadhyaya,
who reads?

. . . meti-akhena thubo
sabhayakena pratistavito
puyae aghasa ca nayae,
matapitu
translating,
was erected . . . metiakha,
"(This) stupa by (an
inhabitant Taba . . . with his wife
of) together
for the worship of his father and mother and for
destruction of sin."

He remarks that the second and thirdremaining aksaras

look more like di and ca than ti and a. But in fact the
second is clearly ri; the third has
photograph in the
a form which be read jha or do ; as
might perhaps
I suspect, however, that it is really only a da or perhaps
" on the
da disfigured by the twistings and indentations
Whether the fourth is really khe, or whether
plate".
a careful examination would reveal traces of the r-curve,

making rkhe, wre have not the means of deciding. In

any case, a comparison with the other inscription, in

which all the aksaras of meridarkhena are unmistakable,
leaves no doubt that the same word, possibly in the form
meridakhena = meridralehena, is intended here.
As the rest of the reading, I should propose
regards
to deviate from Mahamahopadhyaya Haraprasad Sastri
as regards na (twice), which may be na)
(except perhaps
only at the end, substituting
=
aghadacho (i.e. chi) nayae argha-dalcsindyai

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 TWO KHAROSTHI INSCRIPTIONS FROM TAXILA 281

(or is it an engraver's error for drogyadaksindyae ?) in

place of his

ca
aghasa nayae.

Thereading ca (for cho) is certainly due to an oversight;

and, as the remainder, the unusual form ?nayae
regards
for ?naya or nae is calculated to mislead.
It is unfortunate that the first portion of the plate,

containing the proper name, has disappeared. In

Cunningham's facsimile
appear three aksaras, read by
him as savatsa, of which the
Mahamahopadhyaya regards
the first as certainly ta. The tsa may be read also in
the plate published in the JASB. for 1855 ; but the name
is imperfect and illegible (see the Plate attached to this
article, which reproduces the beginnings of both the
facsimiles). In the casket inscription the MeptSap^v^ is
named ThcAdora = Theodovos.
I have pointed out (loc. cit.) that the casket inscription
by the forms of its letters associates itself with the oldest
Kharosthi records : with this fact the Greek
combining
official title and the Greek personal name, we could have
little hesitation in regarding that inscription as, after the
Asoka Edicts, the most ancient of all. Similar arguments
?to which we may add the "find-spot", which seems to
be between the first and second sites, the Bir Mound and
Sir Kap, at to this from
Taxila?apply copperplate
Taxila, which is therefore a rival claimant to prioritj'.
Jt is clearly not the case that the name in the copper

plate inscription was the same as that on the casket,

"
and
"
that consequently one person was Meridarch both at
Taxila and in the Pathan countiy, where the casket was
found. Accordingly we conclude that under the Greek
rulers of these regions the title of Meridarch was
a regular official Both refer to
designation. inscriptions
Buddhist foundations and verify thereby the early pene
tration of Buddhism into the districts of the north-west.

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282 two kharosthi inscriptions from taxila

2. Inscription on a Gold Plate

This inscription has twice been published in facsimile;
and the readerwhoconsults the reproductions accompanying
this note will ask himself what obstacle can have sufficed

during fifty years to prevent the definitive interpretation

of a document so clearly inscribed. In any case, however,
it would seem that since the early days of Kharosthi

decipherment the inscription has been altogether neglected.

now modest contribution
Perhaps others may supplement my
to its interpretation.
Details concerning the inscription, which comes from

tope No. 32 at Taxila, and of its discovery, are quoted by

"
Rajendralala Mitra in his article On some Bactro
Buddhist Relics from Rawal Pindi ", published in the
Journal of the Asiatic
Society of Bengal for 1862,
pp. 175-83. (See Mr. O. D. also
Westropps description
in the Proceedings for 1861, p. 413, and Major Pearsc's
note in the Proceedings for 1865, pp. 111-13.) But for the
sake of brevity we maj'be content to quote Cunningham's
statement (Archceological Survey Reports, ii, p. 130).
14
The relics consisted of a circular stone box about 1 foot in
diameter and 3 inches in depth, beautifully turned and polished,
and covered by a slab of sandstone, inside which there was
a small hollow crystal figure of a hansa or goose, containing
a thin gold plate 2J inches long and nearly 1 inch broad,
inscribed with Ariano-Pali characters. These letters have been
punched on the plate from tho back, so that fchoy appear in
relief on the upper side."
"
Cunningham adds that the circular stone box and
the crystal goose are now in the British Museum, but the

inscription is not with them ".

Of the inscription we have three readings?
1. That of Rajendralala Mitra:
Siric bhagava, bodhavo prajna, raliyamata
hasisapita hasasiln iva sasi atiyoha
viharati.

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 Journal Roy. As. Soc. 1916

1.
CUNN INO 11 AM RAJENDRALALA MITRA

-\J7c7*-**
'
\IS I I commencement /. J II
Y^y'/tJ
* ' of J,,ao,i
su,pa ''?',;";P I
Y<J&f< <No- !4? Inscription
' ' '"' "'" ' ' I
/i/^xSSi

2 COLD PLATIC &c FROM GANGU STUPA (N0.32).

CUNN INCH AM.

The s:une 1RAJENDRALALA MITRA)

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 TWO KHAROSTHI INSCRIPTIONS FROM TAXILA 283

2. That of E. C. Bayley, attached to Mitra's article:

Sirae bhagava bodhabo (or ye) prevvavetiye mata
ha sisa pitnha sase loota sasi lira
aliyo
tchajati.
3. That of Cunningham (loc. cit.), who regards the
as difficult:
inscription
Sirae bhagava to dhato j^rethavatiye matu
ha sisa pitaha sasi Loora-sasi aliyo ha

tchajati.
I propose to read as follows:?
1.1, Sirae bhagavato dhato prethavatiye matu
1. 2, hasisa pituhasase loodasasi atiyoha
1. 3, dehajali
wherein the following points of reading at once call for
comment:?

1. dhato. The final to, not tu, is guaranteed by identity

with the last aksara of bhagavato.
2. prethavatiye. Although this word might find a
"
Sanskrit equivalent in presthdpatya, dearest offspring,"
no one would seriously it is really an erroneously
doubt that
inscribed pralithavayati (stamped from the back), and
we shall recall the errors which have been shown in
Sir J. H. Marshall's silver scroll
inscription from the same
city. It would seem that work done in metals, or at least
in the precious metals, wras less reliable textually than that

slowly wrought in stone.

3. mala, pita, ati, ja, ti. In all these cases the
of the aksara are in favour of t
proportions recognizing
rather than d, and this is confirmed by the clearly different
shape of the d in delta (Cunningham's facsimile).
We now rewrite and translate as follows:?
nuiy
1. 1, Sirae bhagavato dhato prethavatiye [i.e. prali
thavayati] mala,
1. 2, ha[m]sisa irituha[;m]sase (i.e. ?sa) Loodasasi

A[m?]tiyoha,
1. 3, dehajd ti.
JRAS. 1<H6. 19

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 284 TWO KHAROSTHI INSCRIPTIONS FROM TAXILA

11
Iii Sua, A[m]tiyoha, sister of Looda,1 daughter of
a hanisi mother and a hamsa father, deposits relics of the

Bhagavat."
In order to recognize the word hamsa, we should not
perhaps have needed anything beyond the impossibility of
otherwise explaining the text; for the expedient propounded
and = "maternal and
by Bayley (mdtuha p>ituha paternal
relatives") would at this date be quite unacceptable.
But for the sake
producingof conviction it is clearly
convenient to be able to figure in the Plate the actual

receptacle in which the scroll was It speaks

deposited.
for itself.
But what is meant a hamsa father and a hanisi
by
mother ? Let us remember that the hamsa is white,
so that it is an a so the
apt type of spotless character;
Harsa-carita, c. vi (trans, p. J71)), where referring to his
"
murdered brother, Harsa says: In whose minds would

my lord's heroic
qualities, alighting like rdja-hamsas
upon the
lake, find no favour ?" Secondly, the hamsa
is famed in poetry for its affectionate union; see
pair
the verse 449 in Kavindravacanasamuccaya. Thirdly,
since is a migrant,
the hamsa which after a season takes
its departure to Lake Manasa (Harsa-carita, c. i, v. 22),
it is a fitly chosen synonym for friends departed to
a better world. And, in the of the
lastly, language
Upanisads (e.g. Chdndogya, iv, 1. 2; Katha, v, 2;
Svetdsvatara, i, 6 ; Ksur ikd, 22?see Colonel Jacob's
Concordance) the word hamsa is a common synonym for
the embodied soul, jiva. I will quote only a passage
from the Pinda-ujmnisad, brought to my notice by
Mr. Barua :?

bhinne p^ancdtmake dche gate 2>aiica$n pancadhd I

hamsas tyaktvd gato deham kasmin sthdne vyavasthitahW
1 a
If, after all, yc should be relative aud the reading should be
"
prcthace[ni\ti (pratisthdpayanti), the translation would be Loota and his
sister ". This, however, I feel to be less probable.

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 TWO KHAROSTHI INSCRIPTIONS FROM TAXILA 285

The Paramahamsa of later literature, on which

Rajendralala Mitra dwells in connexion

figure, with the
is only a of this idea. As Major
special development
Pearse states that such hanisa, figures were commonly
found, we may suppose them to have often had a memorial
significance.
Two other points of interest call for remark. In the
first place Sua is clearly the name of the place or district,
now Sir
Kap, in which the stupa was. It is not necessary
to suppose that the name Sir Kap contains any etymological
survival of Sira?the common view
is otherwise?nor
would it be reasonable to regard the form as = [Taksa]si!a.
It is no doubt a local name, like the Tanuva of Sir J. H.
Marshall's inscription.
The other point is the non-Indian aspect of the two
names Looda and A[m]tiyoha ? Are they perhaps distorted
Greek, Leontes and Antioche ? If so, the allusion to the

hat)isa testifies to a rather thorough acclimatization.

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