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THE IKHAKU KINGS
constructed (?) for the use of the Saṁgha of the venerable Buddha, a stūpa (tuva) in the village (gama), in conjunction with his wife, sons, friends and relatives (?)
and set up a pillar in the stone-chamber (?) there, for the increase of his life and
prosperity. As the stone is broken and damaged towards the bottom, the record
cannot be completely made out. The inscription seems to contain a reference to
the Khaṇḍagiri hill in Orissa in the expression ‘ Khadagiri-vadha. . . . . . . . .â
Mūlāvāsa-Chētiya at Amarāvati.
12. Next in chronological order come the two Brāhmī inscriptions (Nos. 329-
30) of about the 3rd century A.D., found on the outer prākāra wall of the Amarēśvara
temple at Amarāvati in the Sattenapalle
taluk of the Guntur district. The
former refers to the Mahāchētiya and seems to record a gift made to by a house-holder (gahapati) of the Vērakīyas, whose name is lost. The other inscription
records a gift made by Vēra-Dāsa, a Sēṭhi (banker), for the benefit of Thēra Chitaka
of the Mūlāvāsa-Chētiya. It may be noted that the Mahāchētiya or Mūlāvāsa-
Chētiya mentioned in the two epigraphs evidently refers to the Buddhist temple
at Amarāvati and that the Vēraka or Vēra* was a Buddhist clan not hitherto met
with in inscriptions. It is interesting to note here that according to the Mūshikavaṁśa extracted in
the Travancore Archaeological Series, Vol. II, p. 123, Mūlāvāsa was the name of an ancient
Buddhist centre near Ambalappula in Travancore territory, and that it was held in great sanctity
by the Buddhists all over
the world in the early centuries of the Christian era. This is borne out by the
short inscription on the image of Lōkanātha found in Gāndhāra which reads ‘ Dakshiṇāpathē Mūlāvāsa Lōkanātha ’ (Foucher, Budddhist Iconography, part I,
p. 105, pl. IV, No. 5 and Trav. Arch. Series¸ Vol. II. p. 117). The Amarāvati
inscription under review furnishes the earliest epigraphical reference to
Mūlāvāsa which probably lent its sanctifying name to the Mahāchētiya of the place.
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