# EIAD 79. Āyāka pillar from site 9 at Nagarjunakonda

Arlo Griffiths and Vincent Tournier

Authors of digital edition: Arlo Griffiths, Vincent Tournier

Identifier: DHARMA_INSEIAD00079

Repository: Early Āndhradeśa (tfb-eiad-epigraphy)

File path: texts/xml/DHARMA_INSEIAD00079.xml

Language: Middle Indo-Aryan [Script (unspecified)]

Commit: 2026-09-22 13:22 (151ff65), last modified 2026-09-21 18:13
(3db1cff)

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## Edition

⟨1⟩ […]rinaṁkānaṁ _mulasirinaka(sa) sidhatha⟨2⟩kasa cadamukhasa
pudhiṁnakasa bālika ⟨3⟩ maha(tu)vaṇika _sidhaṭhaṁṇikā
_jakha(s)[i](r)[i][…]

## Apparatus

⟨1⟩ mulasirinaka(sa) ⬦ mūlasirinaka(sa) Vogel 1931–1932.

⟨2⟩ pudhiṁnakasa ⬦ pudhinakasa Vogel 1931–1932. — ⟨2⟩ bālika • Vogel
suggests to emend bālikā.

⟨3⟩ jakha(s)[i](r)[i][…]ya ⬦ jakhana Vogel 1931–1932 • The akṣara we
read as (s) is flat and poorly realized. Our reconstruction is
influenced by jakhasiriya in EIAD 49.

## Translation

... the mahātuvaṇikā Sidhaṭhaṁṇikā, daughter of Pudhinnaka, (and related
to?) Mūlasirinnaka, Sidhathaka (Skt. Siddhārthaka), (and) Cadamukha
(Skt. Candramukha) of the ...rinaṁkas, (and) Jakhasiri (Yakṣaśrī) ...

## Commentary

[1]

## Bibliography

First edited and described by Vogel 1931–1932. Re-edited here from
published documentation and after autopsy of the stone.

### Secondary

Srinivasan, P. R. & S. Sankaranarayanan. 1979. Inscriptions of the
Ikshvāku period. Epigraphical Series 14. Hyderabad: Govt. of Andhra
Pradesh. Page no. 69.

Raghunath, K. 2001. The Ikṣvākus of Vijayapuri: A study of the
Nagarjunakonda inscriptions. Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers. Page 179 (60).

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 48.

[1] Sidhaṭhaṁṇikā might well be the same individual also known from a
set of Jaggayyapeta inscriptions (EIAD 31–33, 90). Indeed, not only she
appears there as daughter of Budhinnaka (of which Pudhinnaka is
naturally an orthographic variant), but also as the cousin of a Mūlasiri
(possibly identical to Mūlasirinnaka), niece of the artisan Sidhathaka —
the main donor of the inscribed āyaka pillars found at Jaggayyapeta —
and sister of Candasiri, which may or may not be identical to Cadamukha.
A Jakhasiri is also known in the Alluru inscription EIAD 49, l. 3, where
it however appears among name different to the group active at
Jaggayyapeta. The term mahātuvaṇikā, possibly a title, remains obscure
at present.