Āyāka pillar from Jaggayyapeta — reign of Siri-Vīrapurisadatta, year 20

Authors of digital edition: Arlo Griffiths (argr), Vincent Tournier (vito).

Language: Middle Indo-Aryan (pra) [Script (other) (script_other)].

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

Identifier: DHARMA_INSEIAD00031.

File path: texts/xml/DHARMA_INSEIAD00031.xml.

Version: (ce35bbc), last modified (ce35bbc).

Edition

⟨1⟩ [si](dhaṁ) (⁓)(ra)ño māḍhariputasa Ikhā[kunāṁ] [si]r[i]virapurisadatasa sa(ṁ)vachara 20vāsāpakhaṁ 6divasaṁ 10

⟨2⟩ [kaṁ](m)ākararaṭhe toḍatūre vathavasa Avesanisa nākacaṁdasa put(o) g(ā)me mahākāṁḍurūre vathavo

⟨3⟩ Avesani sidhatho Apaṇo mātaraṁ nāgilaniṁ purato kātūna(ṁ) gharaniṁ ca samudaniṁ bālaka⟨ṁ⟩ ca mūlasiri⟨ṁ⟩ bā-

⟨4⟩ (li)kāṁ ca [nā]kabudhanikaṁ bhātukaṁ ca budhinakaṁ tasa gharaniṁ Ekanikaṁ bālakāṁ ca nāgasiri caṁdasiri bālikaṁ (ca)

⟨5⟩ sidhathanikaṁ Evaṁ nātimitasaṁ[baṁdh]ivagena saha gā[me] velagiriyaṁ bhagavato budhasa puvadāre A(ya)-

⟨6⟩ kakhaṁbhe 5saveniyute Apaṇa deya[dhaṁmaṁ] [sa](va)satānaṁ h[ita]sukhāya patiṭhapita ti ∥⁓

Apparatus

⟨1⟩ 6 ⬦ 8 Burgess 1887 • The reading 6 and not 8 is confirmed by comparing sequences chaṭhaṁ 6 and Aṭhamaṁ 8 in inscriptions EIAD 46 and 83.

⟨2⟩ [kaṁ](m)ākaraṭhe ⬦ [1+][1×] ka [1×] ṭhe Burgess 1887. — ⟨2⟩ toḍatūre ⬦ ṇaḍatūre Burgess 1887. — ⟨2⟩ Avesanisa ⬦ Avesaṇisa Burgess 1887. — ⟨2⟩ Avesani ⬦ Avesaṇi Burgess 1887.

⟨3⟩ kātūna(ṁ) ⬦ katūnaṁ Burgess 1887.

⟨3–4⟩ bā(li)kāṁ ⬦ bāl(i)kaṁ Burgess 1887.

⟨4⟩ Ekanikaṁ bālakāṁ ⬦ ca kanikaṁ bālakā Burgess 1887 • The parallel passages in EIAD 31-33 and 90 all unambiguously read Ekaṁṇikaṁ. The syntax, however, demands the particle ca after gharaniṁ. Since ca and E are graphically close, one may explain this situation as the result of a pseudo-haplography in the master-copy of these inscriptions, as we assume in our translation. A similar haplography must have led to the dropping of another ca after nāgasiri.

⟨5⟩ saha ⬦ sahā Burgess 1887.

⟨6⟩ Apaṇa ⬦ Apano Burgess 1887 • Emend Apaṇo, as in EIAD 32 and 33. The stone carver seems to have simply forgotten to apply the two median strokes for vowel o. — ⟨6⟩ saveniyute ⬦ save niyute Burgess 1887 • Emend savaniyute. See EIAD 32. — ⟨6⟩ h[ita]sukhāya ⬦ hi sukhāya Burgess 1887. — ⟨6⟩ patiṭhapita ⬦ paṭith[a]pita Burgess 1887 • Franke 1896, p. 601 already corrected Burgess’ reading.

Translation

⟨1⟩ Success! In the 20th year of King Māṭharīputta Siri-Vīrapurisadatta of the Ikṣvākus, in the 6th fortnight of the rainy season, on the 10th day.

⟨2–6⟩ The artisan (avesani) Sidhatha (Siddhārtha), resident in the village Big Kāṇḍurūra, son of the artisan Nākacanda (Nāgacandra), resident in Toḍatūra in the province (raṭha) Kammākara, together with the group of kinsmen, friends and relatives — giving pride of place to his mother Nāgilani, (his) distinguished wife (gharaṇī) Samudanī, and (his) son Mūlasiri, and (his) daughter Nākabudhannikā, and (his) brother Budhinnaka, (and) the latter’s wife Ekanikā, and sons Nāgasiri (and) Candasiri, and daughter Sidhathanikā — established in the village Velagiri, at the eastern gate (of the Great Shrine) of the Bhagavant, the Buddha, 5 āyaka pillars, equipped with everything, as his pious gift, for the well-being and happiness of all beings.

Commentary

⟨2⟩ Avesanisa1

Bibliography

First described and edited by Bühler 1882, pp. 258–9 (I), followed by Burgess 1882, pp. 55–6 (reading and translation by Bhagvanlal Indraji) and then Burgess 1887, pp. 110–1 (1) (new reading, with Bühler’s translation). Re-edited here from the estampage published by Burgess.

Secondary

Franke, R. Otto. 1896. “Epigraphische Notizen.” ZDMG 50, pp. 585–606. [URL]. Page 601.

Lüders, Heinrich. 1912. A list of Brahmi inscriptions from the earliest times to about A.D. 400 with the exception of those of Asoka. Appendix to Epigraphia Indica and record of the Archæological Survey of India 10. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing. [URL]. Page no. 1204.

Srinivasan, P. R. & S. Sankaranarayanan. 1979. Inscriptions of the Ikshvāku period. Epigraphical Series 14. Hyderabad: Govt. of Andhra Pradesh. Page no. 24.

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. Jaga 2.

Raghunath, K. 2001. The Ikṣvākus of Vijayapuri: A study of the Nagarjunakonda inscriptions. Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers. Page 118 (no. 17).

Notes

  1. 1. Beside the two other instances from Jaggayyapeta, the word āvesani also occurs in Tsukamoto Keishō 塚本啓祥 1996, p. no. Sāñcī 384 and two inscriptions from Amarāvatī (EIAD 342, 515). Majumdar 1922, p. 34 n. 2 alludes to these inscriptions. The word was rendered ““the foreman of artisans”” by Bühler 1894, p. 88, an interpretation accepted by Lüders but with the simpler translation “artisan” also adopted in Sircar 1966, p. 41. Cone 2001–2010, p. (s.v.) translates the related āvesana as “workshop”. Interesting mentions of āveśani also occur in the Arthaśāstra, at 2.14.1 sauvarṇikaḥ paurajānapadānāṁ rūpyasuvarṇam āveśanibhiḥ kārayet | and at 2.14.7 āveśanibhiḥ suvarṇapudgalalakṣaṇaprayogeṣu tat taj jānīyāt |.