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 No. 18.] TWO INSCRIPTIONS ON BUDDHIST IMAGES. 179 in my opinion, would well agree with the evidence of the coins which, starting from purely Hellenistic types, manifest a constant deterioration ending in the barbarous issues of the Kushanas. And in like manner the sculptures which owed their origin to the same Hellenistic influence must have had a parallel history of gradual Indianisation. The Sarnath image has two inscriptions : one, as in Gupta sculptures, carved on the front of the plain pedestal, the other on the back of the image between the feet. The former (iii. 6, o) is divided into two halves by a vertical, semicircular groove. It consists of two lines, each half being nearly 24 cm. in length. The size of the letters varies between 1 and 5 cm. In the second half of the first line the sixth akshara is slightly damaged, and at the end one or two aksharas are losl 1 read it : 1 Bhikshusya Balasya trepitakasya Bodhisatvo prat[i]shthapito,. . 2 mah&kshatrajpena Kharapallanena saha kshatrapena Vanashparena. . 4< (This gift) of Friar Bala, a master of the Tripitaka, (namely an image of) the Bddhisattva, has been erected by the great satrap KharapaUana together with the satrap Vanashpara." The inscription on the back of the image (iii. d) consists of three lines. The proper left side of the inscribed surface, which measures 40 by 17 cm., is defaced, and at the bottom a piece is broken, causing the loss of the concluding word. On an impression taken immediately after the discovery of the image, the upper parts of the dksharas of this word were plainly visible. But it seems that in removing it a piece of the stone has chipped off. The missing portion of the inscrip- tion can thus be restored with certainty. The size of the letters is 1 to 4*5 cm. The following is my reading : — 1 Maharajasya Kani[shkasya] earn 8 he 3 di 2[2] 2 etaye purvaye bhiksbusya Balasya trepita[kasya] 3 Bodhisatvo chhatrayashti cha [pratdshthapito]. "In the 3rd year of Maharaja Kanishka, the 3rd (month) of winter, the 22nd day, on this (date specified as) above has (this gift) of Friar Bala, a master of the Tripitaka, (namely an image of) the Bddhisattva and an umbrella with a post, been erected."

The first of these two inscriptions comes from Sravasti and has already been edited by me in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Vol. LXVII1., 1898, Part I. pp. 274 to 290. I re-edit it here partly in order to publish a facsimile of it, and partly to correct the statement made by me (loo. oit. p. 278) in regard to its date. The second inscription comes from Mathura and has recently been edited by Prof. Luders (Ind. Ant. Vol, XXXIII. p. 39, No. 9) from the imperfect facsimile published by Growse {ibid. Vol. VI. p. 217, No. 2 and Plate). If I edit it here again, it is because, having read the inscription from the original during a visit to Luoknow in October, 1904, and with the help of two paper impressions kindly supplied to me by Dr. Vogel, I have been able to supply the three proper names mentioned in the inscription, which in Prof. Ijuders' transcript remained doubtful. 1 The first of these is the most important one. It is clearly Balasya trepifakasya, not [Maha^sya as Prof. Luders proposed to read. This person cannot be separated from the trepifaka Bala of the Sravast! inscription, and of the recently discovered Sarnath inscriptions of the third year of Kanishka, of which Dr. Vogel has just

1 Two of them have also been read by Dr. Vogel in hii article on discoveries at Sarnath, p. 178 above. 2a2 Digitized by