Pillar from site 1 at Nagarjunakonda — reign of Siri-Vīrapurisadatta, year 15

Editors: Arlo Griffiths, Vincent Tournier.

Identifier: DHARMA_INSEIAD00024.

Hand description:

Language: Middle Indo-Aryan.

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

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

Edition

Fragment Upper half

⟨1⟩ [13+](ma)hāsena(par)igahītasa ⟨2⟩ [16+][Asa]⟨Fragment left⟩(m)[e]dhayāj(i)sa ⟨3⟩ [11+](sa)hasahalasatasaha(sa)⟨Fragment right⟩[2+] ⟨4⟩ [8+][Apati]⟨Fragment left⟩(ha)tasaṁkapasa vāsiṭhī(p)[u]⟨Fragment right⟩[tasa] ⟨5⟩ [13+][bha]⟨Fragment left⟩gi(n)i ma(h)⟨Fragment right⟩[āsenāpatisa]

Fragment Lower half

⟨1⟩ [16+]⟨Fragment left⟩(ka)[ṁdasirisa] ⟨Fragment right⟩[2+] ⟨2⟩ [5+][khaṁdasāgaraṁṇaka]⟨Fragment left⟩(mā)tā cātisiri A(pa)⟨Fragment right⟩[no] [1+] ⟨3⟩ [10+][raṁño] [māṭharipu]⟨Fragment left⟩tasa Ikhāku(naṁ) ⟨4⟩ [10+][Āyu]⟨Fragment left⟩vadhanīke vijayavejayike ⟨5⟩ [10+][su]⟨Fragment left⟩khanivāṇathanāya (bhagava)to ⟨6⟩ [14+][ma]⟨Fragment left⟩(hāce)tiyapādamūle ⟨7⟩ [pavaji]⟨Fragment left⟩(tānaṁ) nānā(de)sasa(ma)⟨Fragment right⟩[nāgatānaṁ] [8+] ⟨8⟩ Api ca Apano Ubhayakulasa At⟨Fragment right⟩[ichita] [6+] ⟨9⟩ nikapanīke parinām(e)tuna [13+] ⟨10⟩ parigahe savani(y)uta[ṁ] cātusālapa(r)[i]gah(ita)[ṁ] s[e]⟨Fragment right⟩[lamaṁṭava] ⟨11⟩ patiṭhapitaṁ (ra)[ṁño] [si]rivirapurisadatasa sa(ṁ)va 105vāpa 8(d)i(va) [1×]

Apparatus

⟨1⟩ -sena(par)igahītasa- ⬦ -senā[pati pari]gahītasa- Sarkar [1971] 1969–1970

⟨1⟩ (ka)[ṁdasirisa][kaṁdasirisa] Sarkar [1971] 1969–1970

⟨2⟩ cātisiri A(pa)[no]cāṁtisiri Apa[ṇo] Sarkar [1971] 1969–1970 • Our restitution of no is supported by Apano in l. 6.

⟨5⟩ (bhagava)to • Thus Sarkar. The reading prima facie seemed extremely unlikely; we seemed rather to read sathamatā, but could not recognize a sense in this reading. Given the probability of parallelism with EIAD 28, we have decided to accept Sarkar’s reading.

⟨6⟩ -mūle ⬦ -mūli Sarkar [1971] 1969–1970

⟨9⟩ parinām(e)tuna ⬦ parinametuna Sarkar [1971] 1969–1970

⟨10⟩ cātusālapa(r)[i]gah(ita)[ṁ] s[e]⟨Fragment right⟩[lamaṁṭava]cātusālaparigahitasa … Sarkar [1971] 1969–1970 • We restore on the basis of the parallelism in EIAD 28.

⟨11⟩ patiṭhapitaṁ (ra)[ṁño][si]ri- ⬦ patiṭhapitaṁ (si)rivirapurishadatasa Sarkar [1971] 1969–1970 • We restore on the basis of the parallelism in EIAD 28.

Translation

... Cāntisirī — ... sister of ... Vāsiṭṭhīputta ... favored by Mahāsena ... sacrificer of ... the Aśvamedha ... thousands ... and hundreds of thousands of plows (of land), whose will is unimpeded in all matters; ... of Kandasiri ... Great (General); ... mother of (Khandasāgaraṇṇaka) — for the increase of the (lifespan) and leading to victory after victory of her own ... (King) Māṭharīputta of the Ikṣvākus ... for the sake of ... happiness ... and nirvāṇa, at the base of the Great Shrine of the Bhagavant ... (consisting) of renunciants who come from various countries – having dedicated (the merit) to the past ... of her family on both sides and to nikapanīka ... established ... in the possession of ... a stone pavillion equipped with everything, enclosed by a quadrangular compound. In the 15th year of King Siri-Vīrapurisadatta, in the 8th fortnight of the rainy season, on the ... day.

Commentary

The text is parallel to EIAD 28. According to Sarkar, to this same group of fragments may also belong EIAD 38 (Vogel’s M14), but we reject this hypothesis.

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Bibliography

Fragments first described and edited individually by Vogel 1931–1932, pp. 66–8 (M4, M5, M10, M16, M18), then pieced together by Sarkar [1971] 1969–1970, pp. 175–6 (v), who gives the first reconstruction of the inscription. Re-edited here after Sarkar’s plate I.

Secondary

Srinivasan, P. R. and S. Sankaranarayanan. 1979. Inscriptions of the Ikshvāku period. Epigraphical Series 14. Hyderabad: Govt. of Andhra Pradesh. Page no. 18.

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. Pages no. Naga 40.1 (22, 23, 28, 34, 36).

Raghunath, K. 2001. The Ikṣvākus of Vijayapuri: A study of the Nagarjunakonda inscriptions. Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers. Pages 107–8 (nos. 12A, 12B, 13, 13A).

Notes

  1. 1. The alignment of fragments M10 with M5 by Sarkar [1971] 1969–1970 seems mistaken. We believe M10 needs to be moved down by 2 lines hence making it no longer attachable to M5, with as result a text rather closely reflecting that preserved in EIAD 28.