Sanchi Rail Inscription of the Time of Candragupta II

Author of digital edition: Dániel Balogh (daba).

Language: Sanskrit (san) [Southern Brāhmī (unspecified) (brāhmī_southern_unspecified)].

Repository: SIDDHAM (siddham).

Identifier: DHARMA_INSSiddham00012.

File path: XML-Provisional/DHARMA_INSSiddham00012.xml.

Version: 2026-09-16 10:40 (3083d2d), last modified 2026-09-16 09:24 (c200993).

Edition

⟨01⟩ (siddham)⟨1⟩ kā[kanā]daboṭa-śrī-mahāvihāre śīla-samādhi-prajñā-guṇa-bhāvitendriyāya parama-puṇya ⟨2⟩ -kṣe(tra)-[ma?]tāya catur-ddig-abhyāgatāya śramaṇa-puṅgavāvasathāyāryya-saṅghāya mahārājādhi ⟨3⟩ rā[ja-śrī]-candragupta-pāda-prasādāpyāyita-jīvita-sādhanaḥ Anujīvi-satpuruṣa-sadbhāva- ⟨4⟩ vr̥[tty-arthaṁ?] jagati prakhyāpayaN Aneka-samarāvāpta-vijaya-yaśas-patākaḥ sukulideśa-na ⟨5⟩ ṣṭī[***]-vāstavya Undāna-pu¿t?rāmrakārddavo maja-śarabhaṅgāmrarāta-rājakula-mūlya-krī ⟨6⟩ ta(ṁ de)[yadha?](r)[mmaṁ?] īśvaravāsakaṁ pañca-maṇḍalyā praṇipatya dadāti ¿pañcaviṁśatiś? ca dīnā ⟨7⟩ rāN [******] yad-arddhena mahārājādhirāja-śrī-candraguptasya devarāja Iti pri ⟨8⟩ ya-nā[mnaḥ] [*****](ri)tasya sarvva-guṇa-saṁpattaye yāvac-candrādityau tāvat pañca bhikṣavo bhuṁja ⟨9⟩ tāṁ ra[tna]-gr̥[he ca dī](pa)ko jvalatu mama cāparārddhāt pañcaiva bhikṣavo bhuṁjatāṁ ratna-gr̥he ca ⟨10⟩ dīpaka I(ti)(ta)d etat-pravr̥ttaṁ ya Ucchindyāt sa go-brahma-hatyayā saṁyukto bhavet pañcabhiś cāna ⟨11⟩ ntaryyair itisaṁ 90 3 bhādrapada-di 4

Bibliography

First reported (with hand-drawn transcript made in 1824 by B. H. Hodgson) in Prinsep 1834. Published (with facsimile made by Edward Smith, transliteration and translation) in Prinsep 1837, pp. 454–456. Edited (with text and translation) in Cunningham 1854, pp. 152–154. Critically edited in Fleet 1888. Summarised in Trivedi & Trivedi 2001, pp. 18–19 (No. 3).

Originally encoded for Siddham in the project Beyond Boundaries (Grant Agreement No. 609823) by Dániel Balogh (2019, № IN00012). Encoding updated to DHARMA conventions by Dániel Balogh.

Secondary

Fleet, John Faithfull. 1888. Inscriptions of the early Gupta kings and their successors. First edition. Vol. 3. Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum. Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing. Item 5.

Bhandarkar, Devadatta Ramakrishna, Bahadur Chand Chhabra & Govind Swamirao Gai. 1981. Inscriptions of the early Gupta kings. Corpus inscriptionum indicarum 3, revised edition. New Delhi: Archaeological survey of India. Item 9.

Bhandarkar, Devadatta Ramakrishna. 1927–1936. A list of the inscriptions of northern India in Brahmi and its derivative scripts, from about 200 A. C.: Appendix to Epigraphia Indica and record of the Archaeological Survey of India, volumes XIX to XXIII. Calcutta: Archaeological Survey of India. [URL]. Item 1262.

Sircar, Dines Chandra. 1965. Select inscriptions bearing on Indian history and civilization. Volume I: from the sixth century B.C. to the sixth century A.D. 2nd edition revised and enlarged. Calcutta: University of Calcutta. Book III, item 12.

Agrawala, Prithvi Kumar. 1983. Imperial Gupta Epigraphs (गुप्ताधिराजलेखमण्डल). Ancient Indian Epigraphical Sources (प्रत्नाभिलेखसंहिता) 10, pt. 1 / 2. Varanasi: Books Asia, Distributed by Prithvi Prakashan. Item 13.

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. Items 728-730, IV. Sāñcī 95.

Goyal, Śrīrām. 1993. गुप्तकालीन अभिलेख/Guptakālīna Abhilekha (Inscriptions of the Gupta Age). Jodhpur: Kusumanjali Prakashan. Items 112-116.

Display Options Word Wrap Line Numbers Comments Processing Instructions

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<ab><lb n="01"/><unclear>siddham</unclear><!--

(Bhandarkar p250n1) In the original, the word siddham, which is very much damaged and hardly recognisable, stands above the first two letters of line 1.

--></ab>

<p><lb n="1"/>kā<supplied reason="lost">kanā</supplied>daboṭa-śrī-mahāvihāre śīla-samādhi-prajñā-guṇa-bhāvitendriyāya parama-puṇya<!--

kanā of kākanādaboṭa supplied from l2 of the Sanchi inscr of the year 131 (IN00075) where the name is quite distinct. Bhandarkar 248-250 speculates on what it may have been.

--><!--

Sircar feels that "va" was first engraved in place of the pra of prajñā. There is indeed a diagonal across the pa, so va (or ca) may have been engraved - or this may be a fault in the stone or a slip of the chisel.

--><lb n="2" break="no"/>-kṣe<unclear>tra</unclear>-<supplied reason="lost" cert="low">ma</supplied>tāya catur-ddig-abhyāgatāya śramaṇa-puṅgavāvasathāyāryya-saṅghāya mahārājādhi<!--

kṣe was read by Fleet as kr̥ but Bhandarkar and Sircar agree it's clearly kṣe; Sircar also feels that "traces of tra still remain". Bhandarkar conjectures kṣetramatāya; Sircar proposes kṣetragatāya. Marshall_Foucher_1947 (MF) also print kr̥ ... tāya.

--><lb n="3" break="no"/>rā<supplied reason="lost">ja-śrī</supplied>-candragupta-pāda-prasādāpyāyita-jīvita-sādhanaḥ Anujīvi-satpuruṣa-sadbhāva-

<lb n="4"/>vr̥<supplied reason="lost" cert="low">tty-arthaṁ</supplied> jagati prakhyāpayaN Aneka-samarāvāpta-vijaya-yaśas-patākaḥ sukulideśa-na<!--

vr̥ttyartham Sircar's conjecture. Bhandarkar's guess is vr̥ttakaṁ. MF: vr̥ttiṁ.

--><!--

prakhyāpayan is written with a small subscript halanta n, followed by a full a.

--><lb n="5" break="no"/>ṣṭī<gap reason="illegible" precision="low" quantity="3" unit="character"/>-vāstavya Undāna-pu<sic>t</sic>rāmrakārddavo maja-śarabhaṅgāmrarāta-rājakula-mūlya-krī<!--

MF: naṣṭi.

--><lb n="6" break="no"/>ta<unclear>ṁ de</unclear><supplied reason="lost" cert="low">yadha</supplied><unclear>r</unclear><supplied reason="lost" cert="low">mmaṁ</supplied> īśvaravāsakaṁ pañca-maṇḍalyā praṇipatya dadāti <choice><sic>pañcaviṁśatiś</sic><corr>pañcaviṁśatiṁ</corr></choice> ca dīnā<!--

deyadharmmaṁ is Bhandarkar's conj. I can see what he reads as a superscript r, but nothing else. Sircar reads Bhandarkar's (de) as (ma) and has no suggestion for the lacuna.

--><!--

Fleet corrects -maṇḍalyā to -maṇḍalyāṁ, which Sircar endorses, but Bhandarkar rejects it as "wrong". Fleet takes it to mean the pañcāyat; Bhandarkar (p251n2) argues that it must mean "prostrating himself forming a circle of his 5 limbs touching the ground".

--><lb n="7" break="no"/>rāN <gap reason="illegible" precision="low" quantity="6" unit="character"/> yad-arddhena mahārājādhirāja-śrī-candraguptasya devarāja Iti pri<!--

rān is with subscript halanta n.

--><!--

Bhandarkar proposes akṣaya-nīvitaḥ for the lacuna (from the Sanchi inscr of year 131, IN00075) and shows the visarga as a clear reading; the third character looks like sa (this is probably what Bhandarkar sees as a damaged ya); for the visarga, he probably means the two dots just before ya, which look rather like any number of random dots in the facsimile in Agrawala's repro, but do resemble a visarga in Bhandarkar's estampage. I would read (tā#isa#ā#1#kaM), or possibly what I see as a halanta M is just a fault in the stone, and a further character may be obscured by the large crack. MF read ta(d-da)tta after rāN, then nothing before yad-arddhena.

--><lb n="8" break="no"/>ya-nā<supplied reason="lost">mnaḥ</supplied> <gap reason="illegible" precision="low" quantity="5" unit="character"/><unclear>ri</unclear>tasya sarvva-guṇa-saṁpattaye yāvac-candrādityau tāvat pañca bhikṣavo bhuṁja<!--

Fleet's original conjecture for the beginning was priyanāmāmātyo bhavaty etasya; Bhandarkar proposes priyanā(ma)[#dheyaṁ bhavat](y e)tasya; Sircar reads what I've adopted here, but makes no suggestion for the lacuna, only observes that Devagupta is attested as a name of CGII, so Devarāja must be him, not a minister. I'm pretty sure that what Sircar sees as "ri" comes after what Bhandarkar sees as "ye" and both may in fact be true.

--><lb n="9" break="no"/>tāṁ ra<supplied reason="lost">tna</supplied>-gr̥<supplied reason="lost">he ca dī</supplied><unclear>pa</unclear>ko jvalatu mama cāparārddhāt pañcaiva bhikṣavo bhuṁjatāṁ ratna-gr̥he ca<!--

Bhandarkar deems more of the first ratnagr̥he legible; I fail to discern most characters so I followed Sircar's more careful notation. For translation note that Bhandarkar takes mama as "which is mine" whereas I'd prefer to supply sarvvaguṇasaṁpattaye here, just as yāvaccandrādityau is also clearly to be supplied.

--><lb n="10"/>dīpaka I<unclear>ti</unclear>

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<p><unclear>ta</unclear>d etat-pravr̥ttaṁ ya Ucchindyāt sa go-brahma-hatyayā saṁyukto bhavet pañcabhiś cāna<lb n="11" break="no"/>ntaryyair iti

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<p>saṁ <num value="93"><g type="numeral">90</g> 3</num> bhādrapada-di <num value="4">4</num>

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<p>First reported (with hand-drawn transcript made in 1824 by B. H. Hodgson) in <bibl><ptr target="bib:Prinsep1834_01"/></bibl>. Published (with facsimile made by Edward Smith, transliteration and translation) in <bibl><ptr target="bib:Prinsep1837_02"/><citedRange>454-456</citedRange></bibl>. Edited (with text and translation) in <bibl><ptr target="bib:Cunningham1854_01"/><citedRange>152-154</citedRange></bibl>. Critically edited in <bibl><ptr target="bib:Fleet1888_01"/></bibl>. Summarised in <bibl><ptr target="bib:Trivedi+Trivedi2001_01"/><citedRange>18-19</citedRange></bibl> (No. 3).</p>

<p>Originally encoded for Siddham in the project Beyond Boundaries (Grant Agreement No. 609823) by Dániel Balogh (<bibl rend="omitname"><ptr target="bib:Balogh2019_03"/><citedRange unit="item">IN00012</citedRange></bibl>). Encoding updated to DHARMA conventions by Dániel Balogh.</p>

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<bibl><ptr target="bib:Tsukamoto1996_01"/><citedRange unit="item">728-730, IV. Sāñcī 95</citedRange></bibl>

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