Kanheri Cave 3 Left Pillar Inscription

Editors: Kelsey Martini, Vincent Tournier.

Identifier: DHARMA_INSKI00006.

Hand description:

Language: Middle Indo-Aryan.

Repository: Satavahana (tfb-satavahana-epigraphy).

Version: 2025-08-30 17:58 (a6891e5), last modified 2025-08-20 13:34 (8826945).

Edition

Logical
Physical
Full

⟨1⟩ [9+]kha(bh)ālakarasu Ādhaṁ⟨2⟩[7+] Aka(sa) c(et)iAsa bha⟨3⟩[5+]lakārasu (ca) (pa)vayitāṇaṁ ya⟨4⟩[3+]Akhayanivi (da)tā sopārakāhāre ha⟨5⟩[lāṇi] (t)[i]nī 3 kālīAṇe Abālikāvihare c(e)ti⟨6⟩[Agha]r(o)pathāṇas(ā)l(ā) Ovarakāni patiṭhāṇe vihā⟨7⟩[re] [1+]ṭigupasada(riya) cetiAgharo ovarakā terasa ⟨8⟩ [10 3] saAkha⟨ya⟩nivik(ā r)ājatalāka paIṭhāṇapathe ⟨9⟩ (A)saṇe culik(api)yakuṭi koḍhi ca khāṇitā sa(ṁ)de⟨10⟩s(e) vā(ṇu)gha [1+] (rā/ro) saghārāmo saAkhayaniviko kā⟨11⟩rāpito pu[ñaṭha] (ca) deyadhamāṇi ca Ānāni pi (k)[ā](r)[i]tāni

Apparatus

⟨1⟩ Ādhaṁ ⬦ Adha B+B; Adha G.

⟨2⟩ [7+] Aka(sa) ⬦ [5+] Aka[1×] B+B; [5+] Aka[2×] G • It is unclear if the -sa in this sequence and the following cetiAsa is the genitive singular ending or the particle sa- “together with”.

⟨3⟩ [5+]lakārasu (ca) ⬦ [5+]lakāresu (ca) B+B; [5+]lakārasa[1×] G.

⟨4⟩ ha⟨5⟩[lāṇi] ⬦ hā[3+] B+B.

⟨5⟩ kālīAṇe ⬦ kāliAṇe B+B; kāliAṇe G. — ⟨5⟩ c(e)ti⟨6⟩[Agha]r(o)pathāṇas(ā)l(ā) ⬦ ce ti [3+] Upathāṇasāl(ā) B+B; cetiUpathāṇasāl(ā) G • The reading Upa is entirely impossible for the bottom of the -ra- is still visible today. The o-mātra of the proposed ro is partly preserved on the eye copy.

⟨6⟩ patiṭhāṇe ⬦ paIṭh(ā)ṇe G. — ⟨6⟩ vihā⟨7⟩[re] [1+]ṭigupasada(riya) ⬦ vihā [2+] tigupasadari(ya) B+B; vihātigupasadari(ya) G.

⟨8⟩ >[10 3] ⬦ [3+] B+B • G does not acknowledge these missing akṣaras. — ⟨8⟩ (r)ājatalāka • It is tempting to understand here rājatalāke.

⟨9⟩ (A)saṇe ⬦ [1×]saṇa B+B; saṇa G • The e-mātra is clear on both the eye copy and photographs, however the first akṣara could be a ka/ra as only the hooked bottom is preserved on the eye-copy. It is also possible that another akṣara preceded it. — ⟨9⟩ culik(api)yakuṭi ⬦ culika [1×] ya kuṭi B+B; culika [1×] ya kuṭi G. — ⟨9⟩ khāṇitā ⬦ coṇitā B+B; khanita G. — ⟨9⟩ sa(ṁ)de⟨10⟩s(e) vā(ṇu)gha [1+] (rā/ro) ⬦ sadasevājuya (vihā)re B+B; sadasevājuya (vihā)re G.

⟨11⟩ pu[ñaṭha] (ca) ⬦ pu[ñaṭha] B+B; pu[ñaṭha] G.

Translation

(1–5) … amongst the …khabhālakaras, half … of the shrine (cetiya) … And for the ya[3+] renunciants amongst the …lakāras an akṣayanīvī is given: In the Sopāraka district, three – 3 – ha[la]s

(5–6) At the Abālikavihāra in Kalyan, an apsidal shrine cetiyaghara, entrance hall, and cells.

(6–8) At the vihāra in Patiṭhāṇa, at [1+]ṭigupasadarī (or in the +ṭipasadarī vihāra), an apsidal shrine [as well as] thirteen – 13 – cells – which are [provided] with a akṣayanīvīs.

(8–9) At Asana, at the royal tank on the path to Païṭhāṇa, a small hut for allowable goods and store room (koḍhi) were excavated.

(9–11) At Sandesa, the vāṇugha+ramonastic compound saṅghārama – which is [provided] with an akṣayanīvī — was caused to be built.

(11) And [these] meritorious gifts and others were caused to be made for the purpose of [acquiring] merit.

Commentary

Bibliography

Primary

[B+B] Burgess, James and Georg Bühler. 1883. Report on the Elura cave temples and the Brahmanical and Jaina caves in Western India: Completing the results of the fifth, sixth, and seventh seasons' operations of the Archaeological survey, 1877–78, 1878–79, 1879–80. Vol. 5. Archaeological Survey of Western India. London: Trübner & Co. Page 76, item 5.

[G] Gokhale, Shobhana. 1991. Kanheri inscriptions. Pune: Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute. Page 52, item 6.

Secondary

Naik, A. V. 1948. “Inscriptions of the Deccan: an epigraphical survey (Circa 300 B.C.-1300 A.D.)” BDCRI 9 (1/2), pp. 1–160. [URL]. Page 19.

Lamotte, Etienne. 1958. Histoire du bouddhisme indien: des origines à l'ère Śaka. Bibliothèque du Muséon 43. Louvain: Université catholique de Louvain, Institut Orientaliste. Page 569.

Njammasch, Marlene. 1971. “Akhayanivi-Schenkungen an Klöster Und Tempel Im Dekhan Unter Den Sātavāhanas.” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 24 (2), pp. 203–215. [URL]. Page 213.

Njammasch, Marlene. 1972. “Dorfverleihungen und Landschenkungen im Dekhan vom 1. bis zum 5. Jahrhundert u. Z.” Klio 54 (54), pp. 251–308. DOI: 10.1524/klio.1972.54.54.251. [URL]. Pages 262–263.

Hettiarachchy, Jayadevanandasara. 1973. “Buddhism in the Northern Deccan under the Śātavāhana Rulers (c. 30 B.C. - 225 A.D.)” Doctoral Thesis, University of London. London. Page 114.

Damsteegt, Theo. 1978. Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit: Its rise, spread, characteristics and relationship to Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit. Orientalia Rheno-Traiectina 23. Leiden: Brill. Page 335 n. 51.

Habib, Irfan and Faiz Habib. 1990. “A Map of India, B.C. 200 -- A.D. 300, Based on Epigraphic Evidence.” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 51, pp. 103–114. [URL]. Pages 108, 111.

Dehejia, Vidya and Peter Rockwell. 2016. The unfinished: Stone carvers at work on the Indian subcontinent. New Delhi: Roli books. Page 65.

Strauch, Ingo. 2021. “Money for rituals: akṣayanīvī and related inscriptions from Āndhradeśa.” In: Power, presence and space: South Asian rituals in archaeological context. Edited by Henry Albery, Jens-Uwe Hartmann and Himanshu Prabha Ray. Archaeology and Religion in South Asia. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 193–214. Page 206.

Display Options Word Wrap Line Numbers Comments Processing Instructions

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<?xml-model href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/erc-dharma/project-documentation/master/schema/latest/DHARMA_Schema.rng" type="application/xml" schematypens="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0"?>

<?xml-model href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/erc-dharma/project-documentation/master/schema/latest/DHARMA_SQF.sch" type="application/xml" schematypens="http://purl.oclc.org/dsdl/schematron"?>

<?xml-model href="https://epidoc.stoa.org/schema/latest/tei-epidoc.rng" schematypens="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0"?>

<?xml-model href="https://epidoc.stoa.org/schema/latest/tei-epidoc.rng" schematypens="http://purl.oclc.org/dsdl/schematron"?>

<title>Kanheri Cave 3 Left Pillar Inscription</title>

<resp>EpiDoc Encoding</resp>

<forename>Kelsey</forename>

<surname>Martini</surname>

</persName>

</respStmt>

<resp>intellectual authorship of edition</resp>

<forename>Kelsey</forename>

<surname>Martini</surname>

</persName>

<forename>Vincent</forename>

<surname>Tournier</surname>

</persName>

</respStmt>

</titleStmt>

<authority>DHARMA</authority>

<pubPlace>Munich</pubPlace>

<idno type="filename">DHARMA_INSKI00006</idno>

<p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported

Licence. To view a copy of the licence, visit

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to

Creative Commons, 444 Castro Street, Suite 900, Mountain View,

California, 94041, USA.</p>

</licence>

</availability>

</publicationStmt>

<repository>DHARMAbase</repository>

</msIdentifier>

</msContents>

<p/>

</handDesc>

</physDesc>

</msDesc>

</sourceDesc>

</fileDesc>

<p>The project DHARMA has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no 809994).</p>

</projectDesc>

<p>Public URIs with the prefix bib to point to a Zotero Group Library named ERC-DHARMA whose data are open to the public.</p>

</prefixDef>

<p>Internal URIs using the part prefix to point to person elements in the <ref>DHARMA_idListMembers_v01.xml</ref> file.</p>

</prefixDef>

</listPrefixDef>

</encodingDesc>

<change who="part:kema" when="2025-08-20">Initial Encoding of the File</change>

<change who="part:axja" when="2020-10-12">Version 3.2 : moving the xml:lang to the root</change>

<change who="part:axja" when="2020-07-02">Version 3.1: adding the encodingDesc and linking the template with the DHARMA Schema</change>

<change who="part:axja" when="2020-03-18">Version 2: addition of handDesc and summary</change>

<change who="part:axja" when="2019-12-18" status="draft">Creation of the template</change>

</revisionDesc>

</teiHeader>

<body>

<p>

<lb n="1"/><gap reason="lost" quantity="9" unit="character"/>kha<unclear>bh</unclear>ālakarasu Ādhaṁ

<lb n="2" break="no"/><gap reason="lost" quantity="7" unit="character"/> Aka<unclear>sa</unclear> c<unclear>et</unclear>iAsa bha

<lb n="3" break="no"/><gap reason="lost" quantity="5" unit="character"/>lakārasu <unclear>ca</unclear> <unclear>pa</unclear>vayitāṇaṁ ya

<lb n="4" break="no"/><gap reason="lost" quantity="3" unit="character"/>Akhayanivi <unclear>da</unclear>tā sopārakāhāre ha

<lb n="5" break="no"/><supplied reason="lost">lāṇi</supplied> <unclear>t</unclear><supplied reason="lost">i</supplied>nī <num value="3"><g type="numeral">3</g></num> kālīAṇe Abālikāvihare c<unclear>e</unclear>ti

<lb n="6" break="no"/><supplied reason="lost">Agha</supplied>r<unclear>o</unclear>pathāṇas<unclear>ā</unclear>l<unclear>ā</unclear> Ovarakāni patiṭhāṇe vihā

<lb n="7" break="no"/><supplied reason="lost">re</supplied> <gap reason="lost" quantity="1" unit="character"/>ṭigupasada<unclear>riya</unclear> cetiAgharo ovarakā terasa

<lb n="8"/><supplied reason="lost"><num value="13"><g type="numeral">10</g> <g type="numeral">3</g></num></supplied> saAkha<supplied reason="omitted">ya</supplied>nivik<unclear>ā r</unclear>ājatalāka paIṭhāṇapathe

<lb n="9"/><unclear>A</unclear>saṇe culik<unclear>api</unclear>yakuṭi koḍhi ca khāṇitā sa<unclear>ṁ</unclear>de

<lb n="10" break="no"/>s<unclear>e</unclear> vā<unclear>ṇu</unclear>gha <gap reason="lost" quantity="1" unit="character"/> <choice><unclear>rā</unclear><unclear>ro</unclear></choice> saghārāmo saAkhayaniviko kā

<lb n="11" break="no"/>rāpito pu<supplied reason="lost">ñaṭha</supplied> <unclear>ca</unclear> deyadhamāṇi ca Ānāni pi <unclear>k</unclear><supplied reason="lost">ā</supplied><unclear>r</unclear><supplied reason="lost">i</supplied>tāni

</p>

</div>

<lem>Ādhaṁ</lem>

</app>

<note>It is unclear if the <foreign>-sa</foreign> in this sequence and the following <foreign>cetiAsa</foreign> is the genitive singular ending or the particle <foreign>sa-</foreign> “together with”.</note>

</app>

<lem><gap reason="lost" quantity="5" unit="character"/>lakārasu <unclear>ca</unclear></lem>

<rdg source="bib:Burgess+Buhler1883_01"><gap reason="lost" quantity="5" unit="character"/>lakāresu <unclear>ca</unclear></rdg>

<rdg source="bib:Gokhale1991_01"><gap reason="lost" quantity="5" unit="character"/>lakārasa<gap reason="illegible" quantity="1" unit="character"/></rdg>

</app>

</app>

<lem>kālīAṇe</lem>

<rdg source="bib:Burgess+Buhler1883_01">kāliAṇe</rdg>

<rdg source="bib:Gokhale1991_01">kāliAṇe</rdg>

</app>

<lem>c<unclear>e</unclear>ti<lb n="6" break="no"/><supplied reason="lost">Agha</supplied>r<unclear>o</unclear>pathāṇas<unclear>ā</unclear>l<unclear>ā</unclear></lem>

<rdg source="bib:Burgess+Buhler1883_01">ce ti <gap reason="lost" quantity="3" unit="character"/> Upathāṇasāl<unclear>ā</unclear></rdg>

<rdg source="bib:Gokhale1991_01">cetiUpathāṇasāl<unclear>ā</unclear></rdg>

<note>The reading <foreign>Upa</foreign> is entirely impossible for the bottom of the <foreign>-ra-</foreign> is still visible today. The o-mātra of the proposed <foreign>ro</foreign> is partly preserved on the eye copy.</note>

</app>

<lem>patiṭhāṇe</lem>

<rdg source="bib:Gokhale1991_01">paIṭh<unclear>ā</unclear>ṇe</rdg>

</app>

<lem>vihā<lb n="7" break="no"/><supplied reason="lost">re</supplied> <gap reason="lost" quantity="1" unit="character"/>ṭigupasada<unclear>riya</unclear></lem>

<rdg source="bib:Burgess+Buhler1883_01">vihā <gap reason="lost" quantity="2" unit="character"/> tigupasadari<unclear>ya</unclear></rdg>

<rdg source="bib:Gokhale1991_01">vihātigupasadari<unclear>ya</unclear></rdg>

</app>

<note>G does not acknowledge these missing akṣaras.</note>

</app>

<lem><unclear>r</unclear>ājatalāka</lem>

<note>It is tempting to understand here rājatalāke.</note>

</app>

<note>The e-mātra is clear on both the eye copy and photographs, however the first akṣara could be a <foreign>ka/ra</foreign> as only the hooked bottom is preserved on the eye-copy. It is also possible that another akṣara preceded it.</note>

</app>

<lem>culik<unclear>api</unclear>yakuṭi</lem>

<rdg source="bib:Burgess+Buhler1883_01">culika <gap reason="illegible" quantity="1" unit="character"/> ya kuṭi</rdg>

<rdg source="bib:Gokhale1991_01">culika <gap reason="illegible" quantity="1" unit="character"/> ya kuṭi</rdg>

</app>

<lem>khāṇitā</lem>

<rdg source="bib:Burgess+Buhler1883_01">coṇitā</rdg>

<rdg source="bib:Gokhale1991_01">khanita</rdg>

</app>

<rdg source="bib:Burgess+Buhler1883_01">sadasevājuya <unclear>vihā</unclear>re</rdg>

<rdg source="bib:Gokhale1991_01">sadasevājuya <unclear>vihā</unclear>re</rdg>

</app>

<lem>pu<supplied reason="lost">ñaṭha</supplied> <unclear>ca</unclear></lem>

<rdg source="bib:Burgess+Buhler1883_01">pu<supplied reason="lost">ñaṭha</supplied></rdg>

<rdg source="bib:Gokhale1991_01">pu<supplied reason="lost">ñaṭha</supplied></rdg>

</app>

</listApp>

</div>

<p n="1-5">… amongst the <foreign>…khabhālakaras</foreign>, half … of the shrine (<foreign>cetiya</foreign>) … And for the <foreign>ya<gap reason="lost" quantity="3" unit="character"/></foreign> renunciants amongst the <foreign>…lakāras</foreign> an <foreign>akṣayanīvī</foreign> is given: In the Sopāraka district, three – 3 – <foreign>ha<supplied reason="lost">la</supplied>s</foreign></p>

<p n="5-6"> At the <foreign>Abālikavihāra</foreign> in Kalyan, an apsidal shrine <foreign>cetiyaghara</foreign>, entrance hall, and cells.</p>

<p n="6-8"> At the <foreign>vihāra</foreign> in Patiṭhāṇa, at <foreign><gap reason="lost" quantity="1" unit="character"/>ṭigupasadarī</foreign> (or in the <foreign>+ṭipasadarī vihāra</foreign>), an apsidal shrine [as well as] thirteen – 13 – cells – which are [provided] with a <foreign>akṣayanīvīs</foreign>.</p>

<p n="8-9">At Asana, at the royal tank on the path to Païṭhāṇa, a small hut for allowable goods and store room (<foreign>koḍhi</foreign>) were excavated.</p>

<p n="9-11"> At Sandesa, the <foreign>vāṇugha+ra</foreign>monastic compound <foreign>saṅghārama</foreign> – which is [provided] with an <foreign>akṣayanīvī</foreign> — was caused to be built.</p>

<p n="11">And [these] meritorious gifts and others were caused to be made for the purpose of [acquiring] merit.</p>

</div>

</div>

<p/>

</bibl>

</bibl>

</listBibl>

<bibl>

</bibl>

<bibl>

</bibl>

<bibl>

</bibl>

<bibl>

</bibl>

<bibl>

</bibl>

<bibl>

</bibl>

<bibl>

</bibl>

<bibl>

</bibl>

<bibl>

</bibl>

</listBibl>

</div>

</body>

</text>

</TEI>