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

274 CORPUS INSCRIPTIONUM INDICARUM, VOL. III.
TRANSLATION.
This (is) the appropriate religious gift, at the (monastery called) Yaśôvihâra, of
the Śâkya Bhikshuṇī Jayabhaṭṭâ. Whatever religious merit (there is) in this (act),
let it be for the acquisition of supreme knowledge by all sentient beings! The year
200 (and) 30.
No. 71; PLATE XLI A.
BODH-GAYA INSCRIPTION OF MAHANAMAN.
THE YEAR 269.
THIS inscription, which was published by me, for the first time, quite recently, in the Ind.
Ant. Vol. XV. p. 356 ff., is from a stone-tablet that was discovered in the course of the ex-
cavations made by General Cunningham and Mr. J. D. M. Beglar at Bôdh-Gayâ,¹ the
famous Buddhist site about five miles due south of Gayâ, the chief town of the Gayâ
District, in the Bengal Presidency. The original stone is now in the Imperial Museum at
Calcutta.
The stone has the appearance of having been originally set in a socket about three
inches deep, and morticed at the sides into a building. The front surface measures
about 1' 7¾" broad by 1' 6" high. Below the inscription, towards the proper right side of
the stone, there are engraved in outline a cow and a calf, standing towards, and nibbling
at, a small tree or bush; the tips of the ears of the cow are discernible in the lithograph,
below the commencement of line 14.—The writing, which is in the upper part of the
stone, and covers a space of about 1' 7⅛" broad by 1' 0" high, including a margin of about
an inch all round, is in a state of perfect preservation almost throughout.—The average
size of the letters is about ¼". The characters belong to the northern class of alpha-
bets. The form of y, throughout this inscription, is a slightly older variety of the fully
developed Dêvanâgarî form exhibited throughout the Aphsaḍ inscription of Âdityasêna,
No. 42 above, page 200. In the conjunct letter ry, in yatir-yataḥ, line 7, we have to
note that the r is formed on the line, with a single y below it. The characters include,
in the last line, forms of the numerical symbols for 7, 9, 60, and 200.—The lan-
guage is Sanskrit; and, except for the opening symbol representing ōm, and for the date
at the end, the inscription is in verse throughout.—In respect of orthography, the only
points calling for notice are (1) the occasional doubling of k and t, in conjunction with
a following r, e.g. in chakkrais, line 13; tanttra, line 2; and chaittra, line 14; and (2)
the use of v for b throughout, e.g. in vandhu, lines 2 and 8; vabhûva, line 6; and
vôdhi, lines 10 and 12.
The inscription does not refer itself to the reign of any king. Its date, in
numerical symbols,² is the year two hundred and sixty-nine (A.D. 588-89), on the seventh
¹ The ‘Bodh-Gya and Buddh-Gaya’ of maps, &c. Indian Atlas, Sheet No. 104. Lat. 24° 41' N.,
Long. 85° 2' E.
² As regards the third symbol in the years, 9, it occurs as the second symbol, in the record of the
day, in line 9 of the Bhumarâ pillar inscription of the Mahârâjas Hastin and Śarvanâtha, No. 24
above; in connection with which instance, I remarked (page 110, note 2) that, though it resembles
most a rather straight and upright form of the symbol for 9, yet it might possibly be 7 or 8. I also