Stone Pillar
SAHI Id: | SAHI-1 |
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Sahi Flag: | NIIMH/SAHI/AP/SP/PH/200BCE |
Resource Type: | Archaeological Inscription |
Source Location: | Village: Nagarjuna Konda, Mandal: Macherla, District: Palnadu |
Source State/Province/UT: | Andhra Pradesh |
Source Country: | India |
Source-Site: | This inscription is found on a broken stone pillar, outside a Buddhist monastery at Nagarjuna Konda hill. |
Source Current Location: | This original inscription image is not traced but the estampage of this inscription is available in Archaeological Survey of India-Mysore Sub circle. |
Source Reference: | Inscriptions of Nagarjuna Konda (1954-60) Volume 2, Page Number- 586, Memories of the Archaeological Survey of India published by Archaeological Survey of India. |
Source Script: | Brahmi |
Source Language: | Sanskrit |
Time Period: | 3rd century AD |
History and Significance: | This inscription belonging to the king Post-Virapurushadatta age of Ikshvaku Dynasty |
Material of the Inscription/Sculpture: | Stone Pillar |
Medical Information: | It mentions about a the chief monastery (vihāra-mukhya) called vigatajvarālaya (literally, freed from mental distress, or exempt from decay). The expression vigatajvarālaya is in the sense of a residence of the Buddhist monks. Some writers on Nāgārjunakonḍa are inclined to understand vigatajvar-ālaya in the sense of ‘a hospital’. The word vigata-jvara may also mean a person recovered from fever. |
Description: | This is a fragmentary inscription engraved on a broken pillar and is believed that the inscription was originally composed in ten stanzas, of which only the right-hand part of the last quarter at the bottom remains now. The extant portion of the inscription contains parts of three stanzas (8, 9, and 10) of which the first is composed in pancha-chāmara of Tūnaka and the second and third are in the Vāmśastha meter. The extant part of the epigraph does not contain any date; however, it may be pointed out that Sanskrit inscriptions from Nagarjuna Konda, which are generally Brahmanical, belong to the Post-Vīrapurushadatta age. The purpose of the inscription is not satisfactorily clear, referring to a mandapa having a hundred (or more than a hundred) pillars and belonging to the same establishment. The nature of the mandapa is unknown and the reference may be to a sattra (free-feeding establishment). Some scholars opine that a person who was firm-minded (dhr̥it-āman) and self-subdued (jit-āman) probably maintained the mandapa attached to the religious establishment. The second quarter in verse 10 mentions the chief monastery (vihāra-mukhya) called vigatajvarālaya (literally, freed from mental distress, or exempt from decay). The expression vigatajvarālaya is in the sense of a residence of the Buddhist monks. Some writers on Nāgārjunakonda are inclined to understand vigatajvar-ālaya in the sense of ‘a hospital’. The word vigata-jvara may also mean a person recovered from fever. The last quarter of the said stanza (verse10) says that a vihāra-bāhā- 'a wing of the monastery', was made in the monastic establishment. It seems to refer either to the mandapa or to some institution associated with the mandapa. The wing of the vihāra mentioned here may be supposed to have been a free feeding establishment and the person who made it is described as vipul-ārtha-kānkshin, the expression being probably used in the sense of Pali atthakāma (Sanskrit artha-kāma), i.e., 'one who is interested in the welfare of others'. |
Text/Transcript: | 1. Mukkhaya pāchakā(uka)hvaya (e) (||) (8) 2. (sama) ṅḍaḍapa stamba(mbha)-(sat)-ādhik-ojva(jjva)la(ha) (|) 3. (ji)t-ātman-nena dhri(t)o dhrit-ātmanā (||) 4. (so) bhane vihāra-mukkhye vigatajvarāla |
Additional Information: | The last quarter of the said stanza (verse10) says that a vihāra-bāhā- 'a wing of the monastery', was made in the monastic establishment. It seems to refer either to the mandapa or to some institution associated with the mandapa. The wing of the vihāra mentioned here may be supposed to have been a free feeding establishment and the person who made it is described as vipul-ārtha-kānkshin, the expression being probably used in the sense of Pali atthakāma (Sanskrit artha-kāma), i.e., 'one who is interested in the welfare of others'. |