Bodhgaya inscription of Mahanaman
Bodh Gayā
बोधगया Bodhgayā | |
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town | |
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The Bodh Gayā inscription of Mahānāman is an epigraphic record documenting the construction of a temple by the Sri Lankan monk Mahānāman at Bodh Gaya in the late sixth century.
Location
Bodh Gayā is located south of
Publication
The
Description and Contents
The inscription records the building of a temple by a monk named Mahānāman. It is dated year 267, in the month of caitra on the 8th day of the śudi fortnight. This date is generally accepted as belonging to the Gupta era and thus refers to 586-87 CE.
Text
The full text is given in The South Asia Inscriptions Database. The purport of the inscription is given in lines 9-11.
9-11) laṅkādvīpaprasūtaḥ ... san mahānāmanāmā tenoccair bbodhimaṇḍe śaśikaradhavalaḥ sarvvato maṇḍapena kāntaḥ prāsāda eṣa smarabalajayinaḥ kārito lokaśāstuḥ
Translation
The purport of the inscription can be translated as follows: This beautiful mansion of the Teacher of mankind, dazzling white as the rays of the moon ... has been caused to be made by him ... whose excellent name was Mahānāman, born in the island of Laṅkā.
See also
- Indian inscriptions
Notes
- ^ J. F. Fleet, Inscriptions of the Gupta Kings and their Successors, p. 274.
- ^ Sylvain Lévi, “L’Inscription de Mahānāma à Bodh-Gaya : Essai d’ Exégèse, Appliquée a l’ Epigraphie Bouddhique,” in Indian Studies in Honour of Charles Rockwell Lanman, Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1929.
- Senarath Paranavitana, "Mahanaman, the Author of the Mahavamsa." University of Ceylon Review20 (1962): pp. 269-286; Oskar von Hinüber, Handbook of Pāli Literature (Berlin, 1996).