Nagarjunakonda inscription of Abhira Vasushena

This inscription names a king of the Abhiras, a dynasty of western India, at Nagarjunakonda, the capital of the Ikshvakus.¹² D. C. Sircar considered it the earliest inscription to identify Narayana clearly with Vishnu.³⁴ He also considered it the earliest reference to an eight-armed form of Vishnu.³⁴

Discovery

The excavators of 1958–59 worked on the bank of the Krishna, in the north-eastern corner of the valley.¹ There they removed medieval rubble buildings that lay over rows of early pillared halls.¹ There they found the inscribed slab, with three shrine chambers and a flagstaff. Nearby were two inscribed conch shells, one naming the same god, and a small gold plaque showing a nobleman holding a lotus.⁵

Their first notice read the date as the 9th year of the king and described a wooden image.⁵¹ D. C. Sircar edited the record in Epigraphia Indica.⁵¹ He said that this notice rested on a faulty transcript.⁵¹

Description and language

The inscription is in six lines, about 38 inches long and 16 inches high.¹ Many letters are damaged, especially in the lower part.¹ The script is like that of the Ikshvaku inscriptions of the later 3rd and early 4th centuries.¹

The language is Sanskrit with Prakrit forms and includes one verse.¹³ Sircar noted that the Buddhist inscriptions of Nagarjunakonda are generally in Prakrit.¹³ Its Brahmanical (Hindu) inscriptions are generally in Sanskrit.¹³

Content

The record opens with a salutation to Narayana as the supreme god and first being.³ Sircar took this as the earliest inscription clearly identifying Narayana with Vishnu.³ It is dated on the first day of the seventh fortnight of the rainy season, in the 30th year of King Vasishthiputra Vasushena, the Abhira.³⁶

It records that the god Ashtabhujasvamin was installed on the Sata-giri without being moved from his place.³⁴⁶ His name implies an eight-armed image.³⁴⁶ Four parties carried out the work:³⁶

Sivasena of the Kausika clan, who held the titles of mahagramika, mahatalavara and mahadandanayaka³⁶
certain persons of Sanjayapura³⁶
the Saka Rudradaman of Avanti³⁶
Vishnurudrasivalananda Satakarni of Vanavasa³⁶

They also had the enclosure of the shrine on the hill decorated, and cleaned the well called Mahananda.⁷⁶ They dug two tanks and planted groves of palmyra palms.⁷⁶ The engraver, Vardhamanaka, is praised at length.²⁸ The text was composed by the minister (amatya) Tishyasarman, and it ends with a blessing on herds of cows.²⁸

Interpretation

Sircar thought Sivasena was a local noble, perhaps once in Ikshvaku service, since his titles resemble those of Ikshvaku nobles.³ He guessed that the persons of Sanjayapura were Yavana (Indo-Greek) chiefs of Sanjan in the Thana district, though he admitted that the word might be corrupt.⁴⁹ Rudradaman of Avanti bore the name of two Saka rulers of Ujjain. Vishnurudrasivalananda’s name recalled the Satakarnis of Banavasi.³ Sircar suggested that the Sata-giri included the Siddhaladhari hill near the findspot.⁷ The Sata-giri is a range of hills named in a Nasik inscription of the Satavahana Pulumavi.⁷

The Abhiras ruled around Nasik in western India. Sircar thought Vasushena probably a descendant of the Abhira king Isvarasena, whose reign is thought to have begun the era of 248 CE.² If year 30 belongs to that era, the record dates to about 278–79.²⁹ In that case Vasushena briefly extended his rule over the Ikshvaku kingdom, probably between the reigns of Virapurushadatta and his son.²⁹

Sircar considered and set aside two other explanations:⁹

Vasushena might have visited a friendly Ikshvaku court.⁹
He might have occupied the valley while the Ikshvakus were fighting the Pallavas in the early 4th century, in which case the year would be regnal.⁹

Sircar found the first hard to fit with the wording, and found it puzzling that an Abhira record did not name the era.⁹ He admitted that the matter could not be settled without further evidence.⁹

In a later paper Sircar combined this date with the cyclic-year dates of 273–74 and 333–34.¹⁰ He suggested two possibilities.¹⁰ Either the Abhiras drove out Virapurushadatta about 275 and the Ikshvakus returned within a few years.¹⁰ Or the Abhiras and Pallavas together overthrew the Ikshvakus.¹⁰ The Archaeological Survey’s review of 1959–60 summarised the finds as suggesting an Abhira interregnum (a break between reigns) in Ikshvaku history.¹¹

D. C. Sircar, “Nagarjunikonda Inscription of the time of Abhira Vasushena, Year 30”, Epigraphia Indica XXXIV (1961–62, publ. 1963), p. 197 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²
Sircar, “Inscription of Abhira Vasushena” (1963), p. 201 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Sircar, “Inscription of Abhira Vasushena” (1963), p. 198 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷
Sircar, “Inscription of Abhira Vasushena” (1963), p. 199 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵
A. Ghosh (ed.), Indian Archaeology 1958–59: A Review (1959), p. 8 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Sircar, “Inscription of Abhira Vasushena” (1963), p. 203, text and translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Sircar, “Inscription of Abhira Vasushena” (1963), p. 200 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Sircar, “Inscription of Abhira Vasushena” (1963), p. 204, translation (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩²
Sircar, “Inscription of Abhira Vasushena” (1963), p. 202 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸
D. C. Sircar, “More Inscriptions from Nagarjunikonda”, Epigraphia Indica XXXV (1963–64), p. 6 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
A. Ghosh (ed.), Indian Archaeology 1959–60: A Review (1960), pp. 53–54 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Discovery

Description and language

Content

Interpretation

Footnotes

References