Page:The Buddhist Antiquities Of Nagarjunakonda MASI 54 Longhurst A. H..djvu/18

Rh The first apsidal temple (No. 1), as we have seen, was founded by the princess Chamtisiri, while the other shrine of this type (No. 2), on the contrary, was built by a simple upasika, Bodhisiri by name, who does not appear to have been related to the royal family of the Ikhakus. Her relatives, who were to share in the merit of her pious enterprise, are enumerated st great length. The temple seems to have been founded during the reign of Siri-Virapurisadatta, and dedicated to the fraternities of Ceylotiese monks who are stated to have’ converted the people of Kashmir, Gandhira, China, Tosali, Aparanta, Vanga (Bengal), Vanavasa. (North. Kanara), Yavana, Damila and the Isle of Tambaparmmni (Ceylon). The latter part of this inscription mentions other pious works by Bodhisiri, including a stone mandapa or pillared hall at the eastern gate of the Mahachetiya at Kantakasula. As Dr. Vogel says, this locality must be identical with “the emporium Kantikossula” mentioned by Ptolemy as being situated on the east cost "after the mouths of the Maisolos (Krishna)".

In the same inscription (F. of Dr. Vogel’s list), the city which once stood in the valley at Nagarjunakonda, is called Vijayapuri, and the hill now known as Naharaljabédu on which the lady Bodhisiri built a monastery and an apsidal temple for the Ceylonese monks settled there, is mentioned as the Lesser Dhammagiri on Sriparvata. The hill in question is an offshoot of the stirrounding Nallamalais (Black Hills) of the adjacent Kurnool District, where they extend all along the Krishna in a westerly direction. They are covered with dense forest and are very malarious, the Chenchus being the only people who live in these hills on account of the deadly climate. On a forest-clad hill facing the river, and about 60 ‘miles west of Nagarjunakonda, stands the famous Srisailam temple, sacred to Siva and a great place of pilgrimage in the month of March, when a big annual festival is held and some twenty thousand people: collect there and camp in the forest all round the temple as there is no village at Srisailam, merely a Chenchu hamlet-and nothing more. It seems from the inscription just mentioned, that the ancient name for the Nallamalais was Sriparvata, in fact, this must be so as there are no other hills in the district. As Dr. Vogel points out in his valuable account of the inscriptions, the mention of Sriparvata is particularly interesting, as there is an ancient tradition preserved in Tibet that the famous Buddhist divine Nagarjuna spent the latter part of his life in a monastery on Sriparvata. If the monastery in question was one of those still existing on the Lesser Dhammagiri (Naharallabédu), it would follow that the association of Nagarjuna with this locality has been preserved up to the present day in the name Nagarjunakonda. The inscriptions recovered from the Amaravati Stupa show that the famous stone railing was added to that monument between the second and third centuries A.D., and that Nagarjuna’s name occurs in connection with its erection. If this is correct, it proves that he was living in the Krishna valley at the same time when the monasteries on the Lesser Dhammagiri were in their prime.

The fact that a monastery and an apsidal temple were built to accommodate the Ceylonese monks settled at Vijayapuri shows that very cordial relations must have existed between the Buddhist community of the Krishna valley and