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Taxila Copper Plate
The Taxila copper-plate, also called the Moga inscription or the Patika copper-plate is a notable archaeological artifact found in the area of Taxila, Gandhara, in modern Pakistan. It is now in the collection of the British Museum. Description The copper plate is dated to a period between the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE. It bears an imprecise date: the 5th day of the Macedonian month of Panemos, in the year 78 of king Moga. It is thought it may be related to the establishment of a Maues era, which would give a date around 6 CE. The copper plate is written in the Kharosthi script (a script derived from Aramaic). It relates the dedication of a relic of the Buddha Shakyamuni (Pali: ''śakamuni'', literally "Master of the Shakas") to a Buddhist monastery by the Indo-Scythian (Pali: "śaka") ruler Patika Kusulaka, son of Liaka Kusulaka, satrap of Chukhsa, near Taxila. The inscription is significant in that it documents the fact that Indo-Scythians practiced the Buddhis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indo-Scythian
Indo-Scythians (also called Indo-Sakas) were a group of nomadic Iranian peoples of Scythian origin who migrated from Central Asia southward into modern day Pakistan and Northwestern India from the middle of the 2nd century BCE to the 4th century CE. The first Saka king of India was Maues/Moga (1st century BCE) who established Saka power in Gandhara, Pakistan and the Indus Valley. The Indo-Scythians extended their supremacy over north-western India, conquering the Indo-Greeks and other local kingdoms. The Indo-Scythians were apparently subjugated by the Kushan Empire, by either Kujula Kadphises or Kanishka. Yet the Saka continued to govern as satrapies, forming the Northern Satraps and Western Satraps. The power of the Saka rulers started to decline in the 2nd century CE after the Indo-Scythians were defeated by the Satavahana emperor Gautamiputra Satakarni. Indo-Scythian rule in the northwestern Indian subcontinent ceased when the last Western Satrap Rudrasimha III was defeated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linguistic History Of India
Since the Iron Age in India, the native languages of the Indian subcontinent are divided into various language families, of which the Indo-Aryan and the Dravidian are the most widely spoken. There are also many languages belonging to unrelated language families such as Austroasiatic and Sino-Tibetan, spoken by smaller groups. Indo-Aryan languages Proto-Indo-Aryan Proto-Indo-Aryan is a proto-language hypothesized to have been the direct ancestor of all Indo-Aryan languages. It would have had similarities to Proto-Indo-Iranian, but would ultimately have used Sanskritized phonemes and morphemes. Old Indo-Aryan Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a large collection of hymns, incantations, and religio-philosophical discussions which form the earliest religious texts in India and the basis for much of the Hindu religion. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda to be the earliest. The hymns preserved in the Rigveda were preserv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indian Inscriptions
The earliest undisputed deciphered epigraphy found in the Indian subcontinent are the Edicts of Ashoka of the 3rd century BCE, in the Brahmi script. If epigraphy of proto-writing is included, undeciphered markings with symbol systems that may or may not contain linguistic information, there is substantially older epigraphy in the Indus script, which dates back to the early 3rd millennium BCE. Two other important archeological classes of symbols are found from the 1st millennium BCE, Megalithic graffiti symbols and symbols on punch-marked coins, though most scholars do not consider these to constitute fully linguistic scripts, and their semiotic functions are not well understood. Writing in Sanskrit (Epigraphical Hybrid Sanskrit, EHS) appears in the 1st to 4th centuries CE. Indian epigraphy becomes more widespread over the 1st millennium, engraved on the faces of cliffs, on pillars, on tablets of stone, drawn in caves and on rocks, some gouged into the bedrock. Later th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sten Konow
Sten Konow. Sten Konow (17 April 1867 – 29 June 1948) was a Norwegian Indologist. He was professor of Indic philology at the Christiania University, Oslo, from 1910, moving to Hamburg University in 1914, where he was professor for Indian history and culture. He returned to Oslo as professor for Indian languages and history in 1919. He was a specialist on the Tibeto-Burmese languages. Konow was born in Sør-Aurdal in Oppland where his father Wollert Otto Konow (1833–95) was a parish priest married to Henrikka Christiane Johanne Molde Wolff (1841–1927). Konow studied art, graduating from Lillehammer in 1884. He then studied in Kristiania before movingt to Halle and worked in the Oslo University library for some time. In 1890 he collated a Norwegian lexicon. He returned to studies in Indian philology at the University of Halle under Richard Pischel and received a doctorate in 1893 with studies on the Sāmavidhānabrāhmana. He worked in Berlin from 1894 to 1896 and returne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sangharama
Sangharama (Sanskrit: संघराम ''Saṃgharāma'') refers to a "temple" or "monastery." It is the place, including its garden or grove, where the Sangha, the Buddhist monastic community dwells. A famous sangharāma was that of Kukkutarama in Pataliputra. The Kukkutura sangharāma was later destroyed and its monks killed by Pushyamitra Shunga, according to the second century ''Ashokavadana''. "Then King Pushyamitra equipped a fourfold army, and intending to destroy the Buddhist religion Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ..., he went to the Kukkutarama. (...) Pushyamitra therefore destroyed the sangharāma, killed the monks there, and departed."Ashokavadana, 133, trans. John Strong. Notes Buddhist temples {{Buddhism-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satrap
A satrap () was a governor of the provinces of the ancient Median and Achaemenid Empires and in several of their successors, such as in the Sasanian Empire and the Hellenistic empires. The satrap served as viceroy to the king, though with considerable autonomy. The word came to suggest tyranny or ostentatious splendour, and in modern usage refers to any subordinate or local ruler, usually with unfavourable connotations of corruption. A satrapy is the territory governed by a satrap. Etymology The word is derived via Latin from Greek ''satrápes'' (), itself borrowed from an Old Iranian ''*khshathra-pa''. In Old Persian, which was the native language of the Achaemenids, it is recorded as ''khshathapavan'' (, literally "protector of the province"). The Median form is reconstructed as ''*khshathrapavan-''. It is cognate with Sanskrit ''kshetrapal'' (). The Biblical Hebrew form is ''aḥashdarpan'' , as found in . In the Parthian (language of the Arsacid Empire) and Middle Persia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mathura Lion Capital
The Mathura lion capital is an Indo-Scythian sandstone capital (a part of a pillar) from Mathura in Northern India, dated to the first decade of the 1st century CE (1–10 CE). It was consecrated under the rule of Rajuvula, one of the Northern Satraps of the region of Mathura. The capital was unearthed at the Saptarishi mound of Mathura by Bhagwan Lal Indraji in 1869. It is covered with Prakrit inscriptions in the kharoshthi script of northwestern India. The capital was made on the occasion of the funeral of "the illustrious king Muki and his horse" (Muki has been conjectured to be Maues). The capital describes, among other donations, the gift of a stupa with a relic of the Buddha, by Queen Ayasia, the "chief queen of the Indo-Scythian ruler of Mathura, satrap Rajuvula". The Mathura lion capital, an Indo-Scythian sandstone capital from Mathura in Central India, and dated to the 1st century CE, describes in kharoshthi the gift of a stupa with a relic of the Buddha, by queen Nadasi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chukhsa
Chukhsa was an ancient area of Pakistan, probably modern Chach, west of the city of Taxila. History The area is mentioned in various epigraphic material, such as the Taxila copper plate inscription, where it is described as a territory of the Indo-Scythian ruler Liaka Kusulaka. The Battle of Chach was fought in 1008 AD between the Ghaznavid army of Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni and the Hindu Shahi army of Anandapala The Hindu Shahis (also known as Odi Shahis, Uḍi Śāhis, or Brahman Shahis, 822–1026 CE) were a dynasty that held sway over the Kabul Valley, Gandhara and western Punjab during the early medieval period in the Indian subcontinent. Details r ..., resulting in the latter's defeat. References Regions of Pakistan Historical regions of Pakistan {{Pakistan-geo-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Liaka Kusulaka
Liaka Kusulaka (Greek: , on his coins; Prakrit: Liaka Kusulaka or , , on the Taxila copper plate) was an Indo-Scythian satrap of the area of Chukhsa in the northwestern South Asia during the 1st century BCE. Name Liaka Kusulaka name is recorded on his coins in the Greek form (), and on the Taxila copper plate in the Kharosthi form (). The name is composed od from Saka , meaning "youth" and "striving, ambitious, energetic". Reign He is mentioned in the Taxila copper plate inscription (Konow 1929: 23-29), dated between 90 and 6 BCE, as the father of Patika Kusulaka, and is characterized as a "kshaharata" (also the name of the first dynasty of the Western Satraps) and as kshatrapa of Chukhsa. He minted coins which are direct imitations of the coins of Eucratides (King's head and Dioscuri), with his name inscribed "ΛΙΑΚΟ ΚΟΖΟΥΛΟ". The name "Κοζουλο" was also used by the first Kushan ruler Kujula Kadphises Kujula Kadphises (Kushan language: Κοζο ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patika Kusulaka
Patika Kusulaka ( Kharosthi: , ) was an Indo-Scythian satrap in the northwestern South Asia during the 1st century BCE. Name Patika Kusulaka's name appears on the Taxila copper plate as (). This name is composed of: (), which is from the Saka name , meaning "leader"; and of (), from Saka , meaning "striving, ambitious, energetic". Reign He is mentioned in the Mathura lion capital. He is also mentioned in the Taxila copper plate inscription (Konow 1929: 23-29), dated between 90 and 6 BCE. In the scroll Patika is said to be the son of the Satrap of Chukhsa Chukhsa was an ancient area of Pakistan, probably modern Chach, west of the city of Taxila. History The area is mentioned in various epigraphic material, such as the Taxila copper plate inscription, where it is described as a territory of ..., Liaka Kusuluka. Zeionises (Jihonika) may have succeeded Patika around 20–40 CE. References External linksDates for Kanishka and the Indo-Scythians {{Indo-Scythians I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pali
Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism.Stargardt, Janice. ''Tracing Thoughts Through Things: The Oldest Pali Texts and the Early Buddhist Archaeology of India and Burma.'', Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2000, page 25. Early in the language's history, it was written in the Brahmi script. Origin and development Etymology The word 'Pali' is used as a name for the language of the Theravada canon. The word seems to have its origins in commentarial traditions, wherein the (in the sense of the line of original text quoted) was distinguished from the commentary or vernacular translation that followed it in the manuscript. K. R. Norman suggests that its emergence was based on a misunderstanding of the compound , with being interpreted as the name of a particular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
