गुप्त अभिलेख संग्रह (जे. एफ. फ्लीट - गुप्त सम्राटों एवं परवर्ती नरेशों के ऐतिहासिक पाषाण व ताम्रलेख)

272 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
TRANSLATION.
This (is) the appropriate religious gift of the Śâkya Bhikshu Bôdhivarman.
Whatever religious merit (there is) in this (act), let it be for the acquisition of supreme
knowledge by (his) parents and by all sentient beings.
No. 69; PLATE XL C.
KASIA STONE IMAGE INSCRIPTION.
THIS inscription was discovered in 1875-76 or 1876-77 by Mr. A. C. L. Carlleyle, and
was first brought to notice by him in 1883, in the Archæol. Surv. Ind. Vol. XVIII. p. 59,
where he published his reading of the text and proposed interpretation of it, followed (id.
p. 60, note 1) by my own reading of the text (of course mutilated in publication), and my
translation as it then suggested itself to me.
Kasiâ¹ or Kasyâ is a village thirty-four miles due east of Gôrakhpur, in the Pad-
raunâ² Tahsîl or Sub-Division of the Gôrakhpur District in the North-West Provinces; and
is the head-quarters of a Joint-Magistrate in charge of a Sub-Division of the District.
The inscription is below the figure of a man, sitting in a squatting position, on the lower
part of the western side of the pedestal of a colossal stone statue of Buddha, recumbent
in the act of attaining nirvâṇa, which was found by Mr. Carlleyle in the course of excava-
tions in a large mound of ruins at this village.
The writing, which covers a space of about 1′ 3¾″ broad by 2¾″ high, is in a state
of very good preservation, except that the name of the sculptor is partially illegible in line
2.—The average size of the letters is about 7/16″. The characters belong to the north-
ern class of alphabets.—The language is Sanskrit; and the whole inscription is in
prose.—The orthography presents nothing calling for remark.
The inscription does not refer itself to the reign of any king, and is not dated; on
palæographical grounds, however, it may be allotted to about the end of the fifth century
A.D. It is a Buddhist inscription; and the object of it is to record the gift, by a Mahâ-
vihârasvâmin³ named Haribala, of the figure below which it is engraved.
**TEXT.**⁴
1 Dêya-dharmmô-yaṁ mahâvihârasvâminô Haribalasya [। ]
2 Pratimâ ch-êyaṁ ghaṭitâ Dinê .. mâ(?)śvarêṇa ।(॥)
¹ The 'Kasia, Kassia, Kasya, Kesiya, and Kusya,' of maps, &c. Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 102.
Lat. 26° 45′ N.; Long. 83° 58′ E.
² The 'Paraona, Parâuna, and Pudrownan,' of maps, &c.
³ Mahâvihârasvâmin, lit. 'a great master (superintendent) of a vihâra,' is evidently a technical
religious title of office, denoting the officer who came, in the management of a vihâra, next above the
Vihârasvâmins or 'masters (superintendents) of the vihâra.' The latter title occurs in the Sâñchi
pillar inscription No. 73 below, Plate xlii A.
⁴ From Mr. Carlleyle's ink-impression; so also the lithograph.