218 
[Atr«. 
R. Mitra— Inscription from Gaya. 
Note on an Inscription from the Gate of the Krishna-Dvaralca Temple at 
Gayd .— j By Rajendealala Mitba, Eai Bahadue, c. i. e., :ll. d. # 
Three months ago I received from Mr. E. J. Barton, Collector of Gaya, 
an ink impression of an inscription existing on the gate of the Krishna. 
Dvaraka temple in the neighbourhood of the Vislmupad at Gaya. In for. 
warding it, Mr. Barton said : “ It appears that in the Buddhistic times, 
formerly there was a temple in which there were images of Krishna and 
Mahadeo. Fifty years ago it was pulled down by one Damodar Dhokri 
Gyawal, and a new edifice built in its place. Many Brahmans were sent for, 
and asked to decipher the inscription, which they could not do. I shall be 
much obliged if you can favour me with a translation of it.” The inscription 
was not new to me, as I had seen it in 1864, and brought a facsimile of it. 
I did not, however, notice it, as my facsimile was very unsatisfactory, and I 
hoped to visit the place again and read the record in situ. General Cunning¬ 
ham noticed it in 1872, and published a facsimile in the third volume of the 
‘ Archoeological Survey Reports’ (plate XXXVII). His account of it runs 
thus : “ The inscription consists of 18 long lines of well-cut Kutila charac¬ 
ters. It opens with the invocation— Aum namo Bhagavate Vasudevdya, 
and ends with Kirtti. Near the end of the last line is found the Raja’s 
name, STi Naya Pala Deva, and the year of his reign, dasapanche Sam - 
vatsare, the 15th year. This inscription, with the exception of a few 
slight injuries in the middle, is in excellent preservation, and is a fine speci¬ 
men of sculptured lettering. As it is not mentioned by Buchanan in 
his account of the temple of Krishna Dvaraka, it was most probably dis¬ 
covered after his time ; but under any circumstances it has no connexion 
with the temple to which it is now attached.” 
Judging from the reduced facsimile published by General Cunning¬ 
ham, and the ink impressions taken by me and by Mr. Barton, the 
record appears to be far from being “ in excellent preservation.” There are 
breaks in almost every line, and lines 10 to 15 are all but wholly illegible, 
my reading and translation of the record are, therefore, very fragmentary, 
and far from being satisfactory. As the record, however, is of the time of 
the Pala Rajas of the 11th century and bears a date, it is worthy of preserva¬ 
tion even in its fragmentary state. 
The idea of its being a Buddhist record has arisen from its being con. 
nected with the Buddhist Palas ; but from what I have been able to make 
of it, it has nothing to do with Buddhism. It opens with an invocation to 
Vasudeva, or Krishna, and distinctly names Vishnu as the divinity for 
whom the temple which bore it was built. It goes further, and mentions 
the blue colour and the yellow raiment of the divinity. Around this temple 
* Bead at the July Meeting. 
