130 
F. S. Growse —Mathura Motes. 
[No. 2, 
excellent preservation, though unfortunately it has been broken into two 
pieces by a fracture just above the ankles. On the base is an inscription in 
Pali characters, of which a transcript has been sent me by a clever native 
draughtsman. I decypher it as follows :— 
“ Deyadharmayam Sakya-bhikshu Yasa-dittasya. Yad atra punyam, 
tad bhavatu mata-pitroh sukha rya paddhya yatam chasarvva-satv-anuttara- 
j nana-vaptaye.” 
I have probably misread some of the letters printed in italics, for as 
they stand they yield no sense. (Vide PI. XIX.) The remainder I trans¬ 
late as follows : 
“ This is the votive offering of the Buddhist monk Yasa-ditta. If 
there is any merit in it, may it work for the good of his father and mother 
and for the propagation of perfect knowledge throughout the world.” 
In Sanskrit the primary meaning of deya-dharma is the duty of 
giving ; but in Pali it ordinarily stands for c the gift’ itself. The literal 
signification of the monk’s name Yasa-ditta is ‘ Resplendent with glory 
ditta being the Pali, Prakrit, or Hindi form of the Sanskrit dipta, by a 
rule of Yararuchi’s, under which the examjfle given is sutta (the modern 
sota) for supta. Vapti, ‘ the propagation’ is from the root vap , to sow; 
from which also comes the Hindi word hap, ‘ a father,’ like the Latin sator, 
from sero. 
A second inscription of some length commences with the words Malm - 
rdjasya Devaputrasya Muvishkasya Samvatsare 51 Hemanta masa 1 div . 
but I have not been able to read further, as the only transcript that I have 
received is a very imperfect one. A great number of fragmentary sculp¬ 
tures of different kinds have also, as I understand, been discovered, and 
some of them have been photographed for General Cunningham, who spent 
several days at Mathura for the purpose of examining them. His account 
will doubtless appear in some future volume of his Archaeological Survey. 
Since Gen. Cunningham’s visit a third inscribed slab has been found. 
A transcript has been made and sent me and a facsimile of it is herewith 
given. I have not yet succeeded in decyphering it. It begins with the 
word siddham ; then apparently followed the date, but unfortunately there 
is here a flaw in the stone. After the flaw is the word etasya * The second 
line begins with the word Bhagavat. In the third line is the name Ma~ 
* The word following etasya begins with the letters pu the remainder being 
defaced, and was probably purvaye. This phrase etasya purvaye is of frequent occurrence 
in these inscriptions and is translated by Gen. Cunningham ‘ on this very date’. I do 
not think it can bear such a meaning. It might be literally rendered ‘ after this’ ; 
but it is really an expletive, like the Hindi dye , or occasionally the Sanskrit tad-ananta - 
ram , with which an Indian letter generally begins—after the stereotyped complimen¬ 
tary exordium—and which in the absence of full stops and capital letters serves to 
indicate a transition to a new subject. 
