# fragment of terracotta molded tablet Tawadeintha (Tāvatiṁsa) pagod,
Sriksetra

Arlo Griffiths, Marc Miyake and Julian Karl Wheatley

Authors of digital edition: Arlo Griffiths, Marc Miyake, Julian Karl
Wheatley

Identifier: DHARMA_INSPYU00090

Repository: Pyu (tfc-pyu-epigraphy)

File path: DHARMA_INSPYU00090.xml

Language: Pyu [Script (unspecified)]

Commit: 2026-09-09 14:27 (899538b), last modified 2026-09-09 14:27
(899538b)

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## Edition

⟨1⟩ va khaḥ

## Commentary

The script look like Pyu, though there are no truly unique Pyu features
like a subscript dot, and it could also be Southern Brāhmī, in which
case the language would be expected to be Pali. The closest Indic
matches for <vakhaḥ> are Prakrit vakkha- ’tree’ < vr̥kṣa- (the
corresponding Pali is vaccha-) or vakkha- ’chest’ < vakṣas- (no Pali
cognate?). But it is hard to to imagine why anyone would write ’tree’ or
’chest’ in isolation, and Pali kkh is normally spelt <kkh> in the Pyu
corpus, so we are inclined to read here two Pyu monosyllabic words.

Both va and khaḥ are attested in Pyu texts. Alas, they are only together
in the present one, and without understanding the context, O khaḥ in PYU
32, l. 3, could either be a nominalization of a verb khaḥ or a possessed
object khaḥ, so it is hard to guess what the part of speech of khaḥ is.
O va in PYU 20, l. 2, has the same problem: va might be either a verb or
a noun.

## Bibliography

ASB, has a brief report on finds at Tawadeintha that includes this
tablet fragment. No transliteration provided.

### Primary

Griffiths, Arlo, Marc Miyake & Julian K. Wheatley. 2018–03–26. “Corpus
of Pyu inscriptions.” Zenodo. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.1207290. [URL]. Item
DHARMA_INSPYU00090.