The Nashik inscription of Ushavadata is an inscription made in the

Nashik Caves The Nasik Caves, or Trirashmi Leni (''Trirashmi'' being the name of the hills in which the caves are located, ''Leni'' being a Marathi word for caves), are a group of 23 caves carved between the 1st century BCE and the 3rd century CE, though a ...

Ushavadata Ushavadata (Brahmi: , ), also known as Rishabhadatta, was a viceroy and son-in-law of the Western Kshatrapa ruler Nahapana, who ruled in western India. Name Ushavadata's name is attested in his inscriptions as , which is derived from the Saka ...

, a son-in-law of the Western Satraps ruler

Nahapana Nahapana ( Ancient Greek: ; Kharosthi: , ; Brahmi: , ;), was an important ruler of the Western Kshatrapas, descendant of the Indo-Scythians, in northwestern India, who ruled during the 1st or 2nd century CE. According to one of his coins, h ...

, in the years circa 120 CE. It is the earliest known instance of the usage of Sanskrit, although a rather hybrid form, in western India. It also documents the Indian tradition of '' dana'' (charity) to Brahmins, Buddhists and of building infrastructure to serve pilgrims and the general public by the 2nd-century CE.

Characteristics

The inscription is classified as "Inscription No.10" of the Nasik Caves. It is located on the front porch of Cave No.10, also called the "Nahapana Vihara". It is several meters in length.

Usage of hybrid Sanskrit

Altogether, the caves contains six inscriptions of the family of

, but the Ushavadata inscription is particularly important in that it is the earliest known instance of the usage of Sanskrit, although a rather hybrid form, in western India. Most of the other inscriptions made by the Western Satraps were in Prakrit, using the

Brahmi script Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' ...

. In what has been described as "the great linguistical

paradox A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...

of India", Sanskrit inscriptions first appeared much later than Prakrit inscriptions, although Prakrit is considered as a descendant of the Sanskrit language. This is because Prakrit, in its multiple variants, had been favoured since the time of the influential

Edicts of Ashoka The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. Ashoka used the exp ...

(circa 250 BCE). Besides a few examples from the 1st century BCE, most of the early Sanskrit inscriptions date to the time of the

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 c ...

rulers, either the

Northern Satraps The Northern Satraps (Brahmi: , ''Kṣatrapa'', "Satraps" or , ''Mahakṣatrapa'', "Great Satraps"), or sometimes Satraps of Mathura, or Northern Sakas, are a dynasty of Indo-Scythian rulers who held sway over the area of Eastern Punjab and Math ...

around

Mathura Mathura () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Mathura district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It is located approximately north of Agra, and south-east of Delhi; about from the town of Vrindavan, and from Govardhan. ...

for the earliest ones, or, slightly later, the closely related Western Satraps in western and central India. It is thought that these

rulers became promoters of Sanskrit as a way to show their attachment to Indian culture: according to Salomon "their motivation in promoting Sanskrit was presumably a desire to establish themselves as legitimate Indian or at least Indianized rulers and to curry the favor of the educated Brahmanical elite". In western India, the first known inscription in Sanskrit appears to have been made by

, son-in-law of the Western Satrap ruler

, at the front of Cave n°10 in the

Nasik Caves The Nasik Caves, or Trirashmi Leni (''Trirashmi'' being the name of the hills in which the caves are located, ''Leni'' being a Marathi word for caves), are a group of 23 caves carved between the 1st century BCE and the 3rd century CE, though ...

. The inscription dates to the early 2nd century CE, and has hybrid features. It was followed by the Junagadh rock inscription, inscribed by Rudradaman I circa 150 CE, is "the first long inscription recorded entirely in more or less standard Sanskrit". Sanskrit inscriptions by the Western Satraps are not found for about two hundred years after the Rudradaman reign, but it is important because its style is the prototype of the eulogy-style Sanskrit inscriptions found in the

Gupta Empire The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gold ...

era. These inscriptions are all in the Brahmi script.

Dedication of the cave to Buddhists

The inscription reveals that Kshatrapa

’s son-in-law and Dinika’s son-

built cave No.10 for Buddhist monks and donated 3000 gold coins for this cave as well as for the food and clothing of the monks. The dedication of the cave to the Buddhist Samgha is mentioned in another inscription in the same cave, inscription No.12:

Full text of the inscription

Characteristics of Sanskrit in the inscription

The first three lines of the inscription consist in an

eulogy A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person or persons, especially one who recently died or retired, or as ...

of Ushavadata, and are written in fairly standard Sanskrit, except for a few hybrid features, including several

sandhi Sandhi ( sa, सन्धि ' , "joining") is a cover term for a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on near ...

hiatus Hiatus may refer to: * Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure * Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes'' * G ...

es and hybrid morphology (e.g. ''bhojāpayitrā''). The rest of the inscription records the actual donations, and is more hybrid. Ushavadatta is otherwise known for making inscriptions in Prakrit in the

Karla Caves The Karla Caves, Karli Caves, Karle Caves or Karla Cells, are a complex of ancient Buddhist Indian rock-cut caves at Karli near Lonavala, Maharashtra. It is just 10.9 Kilometers away from Lonavala. Other caves in the area are Bhaja Caves, Pat ...

, which, especially for the eulogy portion, are largely similar in content. According to Richard Salomon, Ushavadatta may have followed the example set by the

of Mathura, in using Sanskrit in some of his inscriptions. It would seem the usage of literary Sanskrit may have been a fashionable way of adding some formality to inscriptions which had traditionally been made in Prakrit.

References

Sources

* * {{Indian Buddhist Caves 2nd-century inscriptions Buddhist caves in India Caves of Maharashtra Indian rock-cut architecture Tourist attractions in Nashik district Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India Sanskrit inscriptions in India