|
INSCRIPTIONS OF THE ABHIRAS
Success ! In the ninth—9—year of the king, the Ābhīra Īśvarasēna, son of the Ābhīra
Śivadatta (and) son of Mādharī, on the thirteenth—10 (and) 3—day in the fourth—4—
fortnight of summer, on this aforementioned (day) the lay devotee Vishnudattā of the Śaka
race,1 mother of the Ganapaka2 Viśvavarman, wife of the Ganapaka Rēbhila (and) daughter
of the Śaka Agnivarman, has invested the (following) perpetual endowment in the present
and future guilds,3 dwelling at Gōvardhana, in order to provide medicines for the sick
among the community of monks from the four quarters dwelling in (this ) monastery on
Mount Triraśmi, for the well-being and happiness of all creatures, viz., a thousand—1000—
kārshāpanas in the hands of the guild Kularikas4, two thousand—2000—kārshāpanas in
the guild of the manufactures of hydraulic machines5, five hundred—500— in the guild
of ……. (and) …… in the guild of oil-millers.
(Line 12) All these four6 (investments of) kārshāpanas ….. by the monthly
interest of 7…….
__________________
1Śakanikā seems to be used here in the sense of a woman of the Śaka race. Nikā was added as a
suffix in the sense of a woman, like the later ambā. Cf. Vijayā and Vijayanikā in inscriptions NoS. 1, 9
and 19 at Kudā. I.C.T.W.I., pp. 4 ff.
2Bühler took Ganapaka to mean ‘the protector of leader of a gana’. A gana, according to him, consists
of three gulmas or battalions, and may be taken as an equivalent of ‘a colonel’ or ‘a brigadier-general.’ Senart
derived the word from ganāpayati (irregular for ganayati) and understood it to mean ‘an accountant’ or ‘an
astrologer’. Mr. Bakhle, on the other hand, thinks that it means the President of a gana or republican state.
J.B.R.B.A.S. (N.S.), VoI. IV, p. 78.
3Bühler, who read Sugatāgatāsu, translated, ‘with the Buddha (?) companies dwelling in (Gōvardhana)’.
The expression āgatānāgatāsu is intended to commit the specified guilds existing at the time and
their successors to the payment of the perpetual interest.
4Kularika may be identical with kulāla, a potter, as conjectured by Bühler, or with kaulika a weaver,
as suggested by Bhandarkar. The guild of the kaulikas (kōlika-nikāya) is mentioned in 1.2 of the Nasik
cave inscription No. 12.
5Odyantrika is properly audayantrika. It probably signified ‘a worker fabricating hydraulic engines,
water-clocks or others’ (Senart) .
6Previous editors, who read chatālāpa or chatālepa, failed to understand it and omitted it in their
translations. The correct reading appears to be chatālo-pi and signifies ‘all the four’. Chatālo is plainly
to be equated with chattāro meaning 'four'. Cf. SHC., VIII, 3, 122. The reference is evidently to the in- vestment
of the four amounts of kārshāpanas in the four guilds named in the epigraph.
7The last two lines of the record, now completely effaced, may have stated how the interest was
to be utilised. Compare II.3 ff. of Nāsik cave inscription No. 12. Ep. Ind., VoI. VIII, p. 82.
Home
Page |
