TRANSLATION.

On the fifth day' of the waxing moon [of the lunar month] of Durutu3, in the 10th year [of the reign] of His Majesty' Siri-Sang-bo', [it was enacted that] if the food and clothing" appertaining to the vasaga which Vidurambamu had obtained from the royal monastery Bo-Upulvan-Kasubgiri by paying 200 kalandas [weight] of gold, and also if the gift of my cattle belonging to Muvariya were not [set apart] not [set apart] for the monks of in this residence, [then] this vasaga should be bestowed [upon them]. The garden given (to the dispensary') and kiri 10 [sowing extent of land] from the paddy fields at Pahan-gama" [given] to the two (medical attendants) .

ascertained

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No. 3. ABHAYAGIRI COPPER-PLATE INSCRIPTION

HIS rectangular copper-plate (101" x 1") was unearthed in 1893 at the ruins of the Abhayagiri Vihāra in Anuradhapura. It is probably a votive offering of a Buddhist pilgrim, and is inscribed with the following mixed Sanskrit ślōka in the North Indian Nāgari character of about the second half of the tenth century A. D. 12 The letters are about " in size, and are in two lines 61⁄2" and 5" long respectively (Plate 11). The engraving is bold and clear except in places where the plate is chipped. The fourth, fifth, seventh

January-February.

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1 Viseni (probably from Skt. visāna). According to Clough, viseniya fifth day, day after the new or full moon. Mapurmukā. See above, p. 26, note 1. • Skt. Śri Sanghabōdhi. "Vasägä kanḍa pinda=literally 'fragments (of cloth) and lumps (of food) of the vasaga or maintenance.' Kanda (Skt. khanda, modern Sinh. kaḍa) seems here to have the same signification as civara, ' rags of a religious (esp. Buddhist or Jain) monk' (M.W. Dict., p. 399). Skt. pinda and its Sinh. derivative piḍa are both used in the modern vernacular. Regarding vasaga, see above, p. 28, note 5.

• See above, p. 28, note 3.

'Gongayan. I am not sure that this can be taken as the plural of gon-geya, which means 'a yoke 8 * I cannot make out the meaning of this word.

of oxen.'

• Behed-ge = Skt. bhēṣaja-gṛha, ‘house of medicine.' 10 See above, p. 3, note 4.

11 Skt. Päşāṇa-grāma.

12 Cf. the Khajurāho record No. 2 of a. D. 953-4 (Ep. Ind. i. No. 19); the Harșa stone inscription of August 8, A. D. 970 (ibid. ii. No. 8); and the Badal pillar inscription of the time of Nārāyaṇa-pāla (ibid. No. 10).

and eighth aksaras of the first line are peculiar forms; the thirteenth of the same line and the last five of the second are not very legible.

Hail! The mother [and] the father are they who keep off the five desires; they are beyond having illusions regarding the self. They write this [with a view] to offering up (a course of mortification ?).

REMARKS.

Pañca is wrongly written here with dental, although the correct form is to be found further on in the line. The compound pañcāśa probably stands for pañcāśā, with final short a for the sake of the metre. Pañcāśa may also mean 'five expectations' or 'five meals' (cf. dur-āśa, sāyam-āśa, &c.). Yavanāḥ is from yu, 'to separate, to keep aloof.' Compare the term vantāso, 'one who has renounced all desires.'

Pārānyavañcanā may be suggested as an alternative reading.

Mātā-pită stands either for matā-pitaraḥ (plural instead of dual) or for mātā pită ca (mother and father), ca being omitted very likely for the sake of the metre. In the modern Aryan vernaculars, however, mātā-pitā is not an uncommon term for parents. It is always used with a plural verb, just as the Sinh. mau-piyo.

Talikkhanti is most probably intended for tal-likhanti, l being elided to make the fifth syllable of the line short, as it should be in a ślōka. Mr. Barnett of the British Museum suggests that likkkanti may be the peculiar Pāli form for likhanti, found in likkhitvā, likkhissaṁ, &c. at p. 15 of the Burmese edition of the Paritta, Rangoon, 1877.

Dātavā is the Vedic infinitive, often found in l'āli, but not in inscriptions of the tenth century, so far as I can remember.

The reading as well as the signification of the last word is very doubtful. Darśayikkarmaṁ or Damayikkarmam may be suggested as an alternative reading.

1 Dr. Hoerule, who has kindly examined the plate, also thinks that the fourth akṣara is nca, and not nku.

No. 4. ANURADHAPURA: SLAB-INSCRIPTION OF KASSAPA V1

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(circa A. D. 929-39)

HIS inscribed slab was unearthed some twenty years ago, when the ruins round the so-called 'stone canopy' in the Jētavanärāma area, about one mile and a half north of the Sacred Bōdhi-tree at Anuradhapura, were partially excavated. It is in excellent preservation, and contains fifty-six lines of clear writing, covering 3′ 3′′ by 5′ 4′′ of the smoothed surface of a slab". The edges of the slab are marked by a neatly moulded framing. Two other inscribed slabs, plain, lie near. Their records both belong to Mahinda IV (A. D. 975-91), but are much weather-worn in places.

The characters of Kassapa's inscription show very little variation from the type employed in the Vessagiri slab-inscription No. 1, which was set up about six years only after the present stone. The letter, however, has its

circular stroke made fuller here than in the Vessagiri record.

As to orthography, we find, as usual, (1) the retention of the original full nasal in the words sindä (1. 1) and väļandūvan (1. 27); (2) the wrong insertion of n as in manda (1. 1), mäṇḍä (1. 5), and mändä (l. 37); (3) the interchange of d and j as bad (1. 15) and baj (11. 17 and 40), pahalavan-ud and ovn-uj (1. 24), bud (11. 9 and 10) and buj (1. 26), varaj and tarad (l. 20); (4) the change of Skt. vyākhyāna to Sinh. viyak-han, S∞sud (ll. 11–12), the original aspirate kh being represented by the two letters k and h3; (5) the ending ay of the gerund of some verbs, which in the later writings is represented by a or a, as aray (1. 1) for ară (in the Vessagiri slab), karay (1. 6) for kara (in mod. Sinh.), pujay (1. 7) for pudā (mod. Sinh.); similarly polov (1. 2) for mod. polo or polō, apirisey (1. 2) for apirise (Vess. slab, 1. 3), meyvan (1. 5) for mevan (Skt. meghavarṇa).

The language of the inscription agrees in its phraseology and general style with that of the Vessagiri slab of Dappula V (A. D. 940-52) referred to above, the first three lines of the former being the same as the first five of the latter, word for word.

1 The inscription is edited from particulars and estampages furnished by the Archaeological Commissioner. I am further indebted to the late B. Guņasēkara Mudaliyar, Chief Translator to the Ceylon Government, for much valuable aid in the elucidation of several doubtful passages. * For other examples, see Geiger's Litt. u. Spr. der Singh., § 18. 2. • See above, p. 25.

• Plate 12. VOL. I.

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Its content is full of historical interest, recording, as it does, some of the important religious acts of king Salameyvan Abahay (Silāmēghavanṇa Abhaya, in Pāli). This king, as already pointed out at p. 24, was Kassapa V, who, according to the Mahāvamsa, reigned for ten years (1. D. 929–39, W.). There is not the slightest doubt as to the correctness of this identification. The Mahavansa and the inscription agree in asserting that he was the son of Sangha, that she was a twice-anointed queen 1, spouse of Buddas Siri-Sangboy Abahay or Sēna II; that Kassapa was given the title of Yuvaraja (heirapparent) soon after his birth (Mv. li. 12; Inscr. 1. 4); that when king, he enforced the rules of discipline amongst the priesthood; that he had the Maricavatți Vihāra rebuilt (Mv. lii. 45; Inscr. 1. 6); that he expounded the Abhidhamma and had it written on plates of gold (Mv. lii. 49-50; Inscr. 11. 10-11), and that he caused the erection of the Silāmēgha-pabbata Vihāra at the Abhayagiri (Mv. lii. 58; Inscr. 1. 13). This last event took place in the sixth year of Kassapa's reign (i. e. about a. D. 936); and the present inscription was set up in order to record the benefactions conferred on it, and to promulgate the elaborate regulations enacted by him in connexion with monastic duties and administration of temple property.

Kassapa V, moreover, built the Sanghasena-Arāma and Kassapa-rājaVihara (1.6). The Mahāvamsa, however, gives the credit of the erection of the former to his mother, queen Sanghā (li. 86), and that of the latterprovided it was identical with the Kassapa-Rājaka Vihāra mentioned at chap. 1. 81-to Sēna I (A. D. 846–66, W.).

The Pūjāvaliya ascribes the building of the Kapārā Piriveṇa, probably the one mentioned in the present inscription (1. 13), to Kassapa IV (A.D. 912–29, W.). Possibly, Kappura Parivēņa (Sinh. Kapuru Piriveņa), as given in the Mahavamsa (xlv. 29, xlvi. 21, 1. 77), is its more correct name.

On perusing the monastic rules embodied in the present inscription, one cannot but notice the care with which they were drawn up with a view to securing the independence, the exalted prestige, and above all the purity of the Buddhist Church. No kind of corruption was tolerated in the management of temple property; no slackness in the observance of religious ceremonies. No monk of questionable character was allowed to remain in the

1 This princess was raised to the rank of a queen, first by Sēna I, when she was married to prince Sēna, then sub-king (Mv. l. 58), and for the second time by her husband on his accession to the throne as Sēna II (ibid. li. 6). This train of identification was first followed out by Mr. H. C. P. Bell, Archaeological Commissioner (A. S. C. Report vii, p. 66. note 3).