Buddhapāda from site 56 at Nagarjunakonda

Editors: Arlo Griffiths, Vincent Tournier.

Identifier: DHARMA_INSEIAD00061.

Hand description:

Language: Middle Indo-Aryan.

Repository: Early Andhra (tfb-eiad-epigraphy).

Version: (a154659), last modified (77e39b7).

Edition

sidhaṁ ⟨1⟩ Acariyana(ṁ) theriyanaṁ vibhajavādānaṁ kasmiraga(ṁ)dhārayavanavanavāsataṁbapaṁnidipapasādakanaṁ ⟨2⟩ mahāvīhāravāsinaṁ navaṁgaṁsathusasanaAthavyaṁjanavinichayavisāradānaṁ Ariyavaṁsapavenidharanaṁ ⟨3⟩ vihāre bhagavato padasaṁghāḍāni patiṭhapita savasatānaṁ hitasukhathanāya ti

Apparatus

⟨1⟩ Acariyana(ṁ) theriyanaṁ ⬦ Ācariyana(ṁ) theriyāna(ṁ) Sircar and Lahiri [1963] 1959–1960.

⟨2⟩ -vīhāra- ⬦ -vihāra- Sircar and Lahiri [1963] 1959–1960. — ⟨2⟩ -Athavyaṁjanavinichayavisāradānaṁ ⬦ -Athavyajanavinichayavisaradanaṁ Sircar and Lahiri [1963] 1959–1960.

⟨3⟩ padasaṁghāḍāni patiṭhapita ⬦ pādasa(ṁ)ghāḍā nipatiṭhapito Sircar and Lahiri [1963] 1959–1960 • The expected orthography is here pādasaṁghāḍāni, but note that in one of the inscribed buddhapādas from Phanigiri (EIAD 109), the orthography is also padasa(ṁ)ghaḍa (read by von Hinüber 2013, pp. 11, n. 16 as pādasaghāḍa). Note furthermore the syntactic agreement between the substantive, in nom. pl. nt. (in function of dual), and the past participle patiṭhapita, in an uninflected nom. sg.

Translation

Success! In the monastery of the Theriya teachers, proponents of analytical distinctions, who brought the faith to Kashmir, Gandhāra, the [country of the] Yavanas, Vanavāsa, and the island of Tambapaṇṇi, residents of the Great Monastery, who are experts at determining the meaning and letter of the ninefold division of scriptures, who hold the line of transmission of the lineage of the noble ones, this pair of footprints has been established, for the good and well-being of all beings.

Commentary

(1) -pasādakanaṁ1

(2) -navaṁgaṁsathusasana2

Bibliography

First described and edited by Sircar and Lahiri [1963] 1959–1960. Re-edited here from available documentation and after autopsy of the stone.

Secondary

No name. N.d. Indian Archaeology: a review. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India. Pages 1955–56: 24.

No name. 1887–. Annual report on Indian epigraphy. Madras; Calcutta; New Delhi: Government of Madras; Archaeological Survey of India. Pages 1956–57: B.35.

Srinivasan, P. R. and S. Sankaranarayanan. 1979. Inscriptions of the Ikshvāku period. Epigraphical Series 14. Hyderabad: Govt. of Andhra Pradesh. Page no. 51.

Raghunath, K. 2001. The Ikṣvākus of Vijayapuri: A study of the Nagarjunakonda inscriptions. Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers. Page 159 (43).

Tsukamoto Keishō 塚本啓祥. 1996. インド仏教碑銘の研究 I, Text, Note, 和訳 Indo Bukkyō himei no kenkyū I: Text, Note, Wayaku [A comprehensive study of the Indian Buddhist inscriptions, Part I: Text, Notes and Japanese Translation]. Kyōto-shi 京都市: Heirakuji Shoten 平楽寺書店. Page no. Naga 50.

Soundara Rajan, K. V. 2006. Nagarjunakonda (1954–60), volume II: The historical period. Memoirs of the archaeological survey of India 75. New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India. Page 192.

Tournier, Vincent. 2018. “A tide of merit: Royal donors, Tāmraparṇīya monks, and the Buddha’s awakening in 5th–6th-century Āndhradeśa.” IIJ 61 (1), pp. 20–96. DOI: 10.1163/15728536-06101003. [URL].

Notes

  1. 1. On similar uses of forms derived from pra-sad in the context of conversion of countries, see Skilling 1993, pp. 168, n. 13; Cousins 2001, pp. 141, n. 23.
  2. 2. On the ninefold division of scriptures, specific to Pāli textual transmission and that of several Mahāsāṅghika groups, see Tournier 2017, pp. 45, n. 186 and the references quoted there.