No. 36. Inscription of the time of Ehuvula Chаntamуla

D. C. Sircar - EI, V. XXXV No. 5

This inscription is engraved on a memorial pillar said to be found near a Maндapa about 100 yards north-east of 'the Antiquity Section'. The preservation of the writing is not satisfactory. The inscription in four lines is written in the usual Ikшvаku alphabet and in the Prakrit language. It is dated in the reign of the Ikшvаku king Ehuvula Chаntamуla, though the symbol or symbols indicating the regnal year cannot be read. The exact date is quoted as the tenth day of a certain fortnight of the winter season (hemanta).
The inscription indicates that the pillar on which it is engraved was the chhаyа-stambha of Koдaraka who is described as araka-bhaдaraka (Sanskrit аryaka-bhaттаraka) and yati-samaнa-khaмdhikata (Sanskrit yati-щramaнa-skandhиkрta). The first of these epithets may suggest that Koдaraka was a religious personage, probably the head of a monastery. The other epithet, in which skandhиkрta literally means 'borne on the shoulder', seems to mean that he was highly respected by the yatis (Brahmanical ascetics) and щramaнas (Buddhist monks).

TEXT. (DS).

1 . . . . . . aka-siri-Ehavala-Chaмtamulasa [sa] . . . . . .
2 . . . . hema . . . diva 10 araka-bhaдarakasa . . . . . .
3 yati-samaнa-khaмdhikatasa Koдa[rakasa]
4 [chhаya-khaмbho |]
_______________________________
From impressions.
L. 1. The intended word may be arako (Sanskrit аryaka). Even if this is accepted, we can scarcely connect this epithet with the name of the Aira family (cf. above, Vol. XXXII, p. 85, note 3); apparently at the end of stk. there was here something like sava followed by numerical symbols indicating the year of the date when the inscription was engraved (DS).