Dr. Priyatosh Banerjee (Indian and Central Asian Scholar)

Dr. Priyatosh Banerjee (An Exponent on Indian and Central Asian Art)

AN INSCRIBED STONE SLAB FROM PAHARIA (BANARAS)

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From the Journal of the Asiatic Society, Letters, Vol. XXI, No. 1, 1955.

INTRODUCTION 

Inscribed Stone Slab from Paharia.

The  slab in question belongs to the collection of the Archaeological Section, Indian Museum, Calcutta. It was found on a mound at Paharia near Banaras, U.P., and was acquired for the Archaeological Section, Indian Museum, during the year 1927-28. Though the acquisition of the slab has been noted published as yet. My attention was first drawn to it by Dr. J. N. Banerjee, Professor and Head of the Department, Ancient Indian History and Culture, University of Calcutta, and I wrote on it at his kind instance.

The slab contains on its upper portion representations of three figures, two male and one female. The figures are all seated. the male ones hold each in their right hands a club and are shown with matted headdress. The female figure sits with her hands joined in adoration. Below these figures there is an inscription consisting of five lines. It is written in northern script of the 9th century A.D.

Though the inscription has been engraved in bold letters it is very difficult to understand its full implications as a considerable part of the inscribed portion has peeled off.; in fact the last letters of all the lines have disappeared. Further, the last half of the 4th line excepting one letter, namely, nya, and the whole of the last line except three letters (towards its end) have completely gone. The inscription reads as follows:-

TEXT1

1.  Om2 namah / Sri - Bhailla-Madhava-bhattarakasya / Ih = aivav(?) [asi?-)

2.  Setoka-Banaka-Damodaraih krip-abhidhana-kshetram kha[tam ?] [/]

3.  Esham Brahmananam = madhye putra-pautranam = bimbam ...3 

4.  chy = atr = eti / Bhatta-Bhailla-Madhava - .............. 4 ......................5

5.  ............................... jye / utk- [irnnam] [/]

As the inscription is damaged, nothing definite can be said about its object nor about the figures. Dr. J. N. Banerjee, who has also examined the slab, feels that the figures in question are not of divinites but are secular in character. As parallels mention may be made here of the representations of Mandhata Rajacakravarti (Amaravati) and sage Rsyasrnga (Mathura). Further, the statues of Vima Kadphises and Kanishka, two important rulers of the Kushana empire, found in Mat near Mathura are too well-known to be mentioned. That the practice of erecting memorial statues during the Kushana period was very popular is known also from several other instances. A fragmentary stone inscription found in Mathura, which belongs to the early Kushana period, contains the expression Tosaye pratima, ie. 'the image of Tosa'. Luders suggests that the lady in question was the same as her namesake who erected a stone shrine in honour of the holy Pancaviras1 (Samkarsana, Vasudeva, Pradyumna, Samba and Aniruddha). Luders suggests that this image of Tosa was erected by some of her descendants at her shrine referred to above as an act of posthumous honour.2  Further, another inscription of the Kushana period, incised on the pedestal of an image from Ganeshra, refers to the image of the great general Ulana (Mahadandanayakasya....... Ulanasya pratima). Thus, the present slab might be one one of a memorial character. Though it is not possible to interpret the inscription occurring on the slab satisfactorily on account of its damaged condition, it seems that there were three Brahmanas, namely, Setoka, Banaka, and Damodara who erected a hall or enclosure symbolic of the great mercy of their favourite deity Madhava-bhattaraka, known locally perhaps as Sri Bhailla Madhava-bhattaraka. It also appears from line 3 of the inscription that the images (Bimbam) of some of their male and female offsprings mentioned as putra and pautra were made by their relatives, and these figures on the slab were perhaps set up in the hall constructed in honour of the deity Madhava-bhattaraka. In other words, the present slab with the images in question was constructed in honour of some beloved departed ones.

It may be mentioned here that in ancient India there were several varieties of memorial monuments though the sati-stones became the most popular and well-known amongst them in later days. In support of this, mention may be made here of the practice of erecting memorial stones (Lasti) in honour of the departed ones as referred to in the four Andhau and Bhita stone inscriptions, etc. The Andhau stone inscription mentions the raising of a staff by Madhana, son of Sihila (Simhila) in memory of his sister, Jyesthavira, daughter of Sihila (Simhila) of the Aupasatika gotra. In inscriptions B and C of the same series the same Madana is credited with the erection of staves in memory of his brother Rsabhadeva and of his wife Yasodatta. The fourth Andhau inscription mentions that a staff was raised in honour of Rsabhadeva also by his father Trestadata (Tristadatta).3 All these inscriptions are dated in the year 52 during the joint reign of Chastana and his grandson Rudradaman, of the western Ksatrapa family.

In this connection a reference may be made to the Suivihar copperplate inscription dated in the year 11 of Maharajadhiraja Devaputra Kanishka (Konow, Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. II, pp. 138ff.). The inscription in question refers to the erection of a staff in a vihara in Damana during the year 11 of Kanishka's reign to which an enclosure was added by the mistress of the vihara, the lady votary Balanandi and her mother, the matron, the wife of Bala (or Balajaya). According to Konow the staff was erected by the friar Nagadatta, the preacher of the law, the disciple of the teacher Damatrata, the disciple's  disciple of the teacher Bhava (Konow, corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, Vol. II, p. 141). Mr. N. G. Majumdar,1 however, was of the opinion that the staff was raised in honour of the friar Nagadatta. If Mr. Majumdar's interpretation is accepted, it will furnish an opposite analogy to the practice of erecting memorial stones as mentioned in the Andhau inscriptions.

A similar practice is to be found also in the inscribed stone capital of a column which has been found at Bhita and described by R. D. Banerji as Linga (Annual Report, Archaeological Survey of India, 1909-10, pp. 146ff.). The inscription (of c. Ist century B.C.) on the capital refers to the 'Lago' of the Kajahuti-putras. Banerji interpreted the word 'Lago' as meaning (Siva) Linga which, in his opinion, was set up by the sons of Kajahuti. J. N. Banerjea has very kindly pointed out to me that here the word Lago should be taken in the sense of Lasti as used in the ANdhau inscriptions. This would mean that the object in question was not the representation of Linga but a stone staff erected in memory of the departed sons of Kajahuti.

In view of all these it is quite possible to hold that the present inscribed slab also with images of three figures was a memorial one.

   

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