278 
T. Blocli — Buddhistic statue from QrRvasti. 
[No. 4, 
predecessors of the Kusana Kings. 1 The inscription, accordingly, and 
so also the statue itself, belong to the last century B.C., or the first 
century A.D., for the question as to the date of those Northern Ksatrapa 
Kings depends entirely on the date of Kaniska and his successors, a 
point, on which, to my mind also, Mr. Fergusson’s phantastical conclu¬ 
sions have been too readily accepted by Prof. Oldenberg and others. In 
any case, there remains no doubt that the statue is one of the oldest 
Buddhistic images which hitherto have been found in India. 
I now publish my transcript of the inscription, made from the 
original stone: 
Transcript . 
(line 1) 
(line 2). 
(line 3). 
-a ^ • 
* N» 
straff 
Translation. 
“(During the reign of — , in the year —, season —, half-month —, on 
the ) 19th (day), on this date (specified as) above (this statue of) a 
B5dhisattva (together with) an umbrella and a stick, (being) the gift 
of the monk Bala, a teacher of the Tripitaka, (and) fellow-wanderer 
of the monk Pnsya-(m^m), (has been set up) in £ravastl, at the place 
where the Blessed One (i.e., Buddha) used to walk, in the Kosamba- 
kuti, for the acceptance of the teachers belonging to the Sarvastivada- 
School.” 
The language of this inscription is the well-known mixed dialect of 
Sanskrit and Prakrit which is met with in all the Mathura Inscriptions 
of the Kusana period and thereabout. Practically it is the same 
i The date must have contained a reference to the reign of a king. The broken 
portion of line 1 is much too long for a simple date, expressed, moreover, only 
by sam and similar abbreviations, as is the rule throughout in Mathura and other 
cognate Inscriptions. 
8 Only the second portion, viz. ya, of this compound letter is visible. It is, 
however, evident that this ya belonged to the Genitive-termination of the proper 
name beginning with Pusya, which may be conjectured to have been Pusyamitrasya. 
3 Traces of the first d of Bodhisatvo are still visible on the stone. 
4 The letter vd of Sarvastivddinam has been added later. It is very small and 
hardly visible on the facsimile, but clear enough on the stone. Apparently the 
“ additional letter ta between sarvasti and dinam, shown in R. L. Mitra’s copy” as 
mentioned by Prof. Dowson (1. c. p. 192) is this letter vd. 
