Metadata

Support
Fragmentary white-marble or red-stone slab; dimensions unknown. A carving in the shape of a lotus rosette was reportedly visible above the writing.
Text
Middle Indo-Aryan, Southern Brāhmī script. 6 lines. Inscribed area unknown.
Date
Attributable to the Ikṣvāku period on palaeographic grounds, i.e., to the period 200-350 CE.
Origin
Presumably installed originally at findspot.
Provenance
Discovered no later than 1945 at Ghantala, its precise findspot unknown. The stone lay in the house of Sri Vemuri Venkayya, ex-President of the local Panchāyat Board, in 1945. Somasekhara Sarma 1974: 2 claims to have seen it in the house of a certain private individual at Ghantasala during a “recent visit”. Not identified during fieldwork from February 2016 onward. Present whereabouts unknown.
Visual Documentation
Photo(s) of estampage(s):
  • The same estampage (presumably ASI 1944-45/B.93) is reproduced by Vogel and Somasekhara Sarma.
    • Editors
    Arlo Griffiths and Vincent Tournier, with contributions by Stefan Baums and Ingo Strauch.
    Publication history
    First described and edited by Vogel 1947-48: 3-4 (D) ; edited again with slight modifications by Somasekhara Sarma 1974: 3 (D) . Re-edited here from the published estampage.

    Edition

    (1) sidhaṁ paṭane pū /// … (°apa)(2)raseliyānaṁ ma /// … (3) naṁ bhadaṁtanaṁda ca /// … (4) budhi °upajhāya[sa] /// … (5) vedhāya pavajiti[k] (āya) /// … (6) kayaṁ °ayaṁ ca /// …

    (1) sidhaṁ paṭane pū /// … (°apa)
    (2)raseliyānaṁ ma /// …
    (3) naṁ bhadaṁtanaṁda ca /// …
    (4) budhi °upajhāya[sa] /// …
    (5) vedhāya pavajiti[k] (āya) /// …
    (6) kayaṁ °ayaṁ ca /// … 
    <ab xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0">
					          <lb n="1"/>
					          <w xml:id="tok4576">sidhaṁ</w>
					          <w xml:id="tok4577">paṭane</w>
					          <w xml:id="tok4578">pū</w>
					          <milestone unit="fragment" type="lost" subtype="right"/>
					          <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown" unit="character"/>
				           <w xml:id="tok4581"><supplied reason="lost">°apa</supplied><lb n="2"/>raseliyānaṁ</w>
					          <w xml:id="tok4583">ma</w>
					          <milestone unit="fragment" type="lost" subtype="right"/>
					          <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown"/>
					          <lb n="3"/>
					          <w xml:id="tok4585">naṁ</w>
					          <w xml:id="tok4586">bhadaṁtanaṁda</w>
					          <w xml:id="tok4587">ca</w>
					          <milestone unit="fragment" type="lost" subtype="right"/>
					          <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown"/>
					          <lb n="4"/>
					          <w xml:id="tok4589">budhi</w>
					          <w xml:id="tok4590">°upajhāya<unclear>sa</unclear>
               </w>
					          <milestone unit="fragment" type="lost" subtype="right"/>
					          <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown"/>
					          <lb n="5"/>
					          <w xml:id="tok4592">vedhāya</w>
				           <w xml:id="tok4593">pavajiti<unclear>k</unclear><supplied reason="lost">āya</supplied>
               </w>
					          <milestone unit="fragment" type="lost" subtype="right"/>
					          <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown"/>
					          <lb n="6"/>
					          <w xml:id="tok4595">kayaṁ</w>
					          <w xml:id="tok4596">°ayaṁ</w>
					          <w xml:id="tok4597">ca</w>
					          <milestone unit="fragment" type="lost" subtype="right"/>
					          <gap reason="lost" extent="unknown"/>
				        </ab>

    Apparatus

    • (1) pūpu JPhV .
    • (1–2) (°apa)rasеliyānaṁ (°apa)rasеliyānaṁ JPhV . This restoration, first suggested by Vogel, appears to be confirmed by the reading °aparase[li]///, in a comparable context, in EIAD 594, l. 2. The latter inscription although not found in Ghantasala, mentions the ancient toponym Kaṇṭakasola. The palaeography of both inscriptions is closely related, and they also share some terminological affinity, both using the term pavajitikā. No other Seliya group is attested in the inscriptions from or related to Ghantasala.
    • (5) vedhāyavaṁdhāya JPhV .
    • (5) pavajiti[k] (āya)pavajiti[ka] JPhV .

    Translation

    Success! At Paṭana,(...) of the Aparaseliyas (...) and the Reverend Naṁda (...), of the preceptor Buddhi (...) by the renunciant -vedhā (...) and this (...).

    Secondary bibliography