2SO T. Bloch— Buddhistic statue from Cravasti. [No. 4, 
The Inscription records the gift of a Bodhisattva by a monk Bala 
to some teachers of the Sarvastivada School, who resided at pravasti. 
He is called “a fellow wanderer ( saddhyaviharin ) of the monk Pusya— 
(probably Pusyamitra)” and a Trepitaka or in Sanskrit Traipitaka, i.e ., 
“ one who has studied or teaches the Tripitaka.” A similar term, 
petakin, is met with as early as the Bharhut Inscriptions, 1 and in later 
time we find the same title in the Inscription No. 6 from Kanheri 
(Arch. Surv. Hep. Western India, Vol. V, p. 77), a document written 
in characters of the 4th or 5th century A.D., where we read of a 
“ traipitakopaddhyaya-bhadanta-Dharmavatsa . 2 This clearly proves that 
the Tripitaka must have been studied in India till at least the end 
of the 5th century A.D. The existence in these days at and near 
Mathura of the school of Sarvastivadins, to which the recipients of the 
gift belonged, is well-known to us already from cognate inscriptions, 
and does not call for any remark. 
By far the most important statements of the inscription, however, 
are the description of the gift itself, and of the locality where it was set 
up. The former is described as “a statue of a Bodhisattva, an umbrella 
and a stick ” (Bbdhisatvb chdtram ddndag=ca, line 2). The Bodhisattva 
of course is the statue on which the inscription is engraved ; the um¬ 
brella apparently surmounted the statue, similar ones being frequently 
met with among the sculptures from Gandhara. In Bharhut, Sanchi and 
Gaya the presence of Buddha is generally indicated by a throne ( vajrd - 
sana ) surmounted by an umbrella, and these also remain associated with 
him in later Buddhistic art. It is evident that the umbrella belongs 
to Buddha because he is a cakravartin , just as the wheel, the sign of 
the unrestrained progress of the law, marks him as an apratihatacakra 
or ‘ universal king.’ According to the Lalita Vistara, the two signs of 
royalty, the umbrella and the two chowrees appeared already at his 
birth ; we read here (p. 96) that at that time antarikse dve cdmare 
ratnacchattram ca pradur abhut , and among the various relievos from 
Gandhara representing this scene, which are now in the Indian Museum, 
there is one on which the artist literally followed the poet’s words and 
sculptured a chowree hanging in the air. The stick ( dandag=ca ) I believe 
to have been a portion of the umbrella by which it was connected with 
the halo surrounding the head ; it may have been laid out with jewels 
1 See Dr. Hultzsch’s Edition in Zeitschrift d. Deatsch. Morgenl. Ges., Vol. XL, 
p. 74 and Indian Antiquary, Vol. XXI, p. 23 £, No. 134. 
2 I believe traipitaka and upddhydya are two different titles of Dharmavatsa. 
He was one who had studied the three Pitakas, and he had acquired the academical 
degree of Upddhydya or “ teacher.” Traipitaka also occurs very often as a distin¬ 
guishing title in Taranatha’s Tibetan History of Buddhism iu India, where Schiefner 
translates, “ Dreikorbhalter 
