Bo-Ika Inscription

This inscription is part four and carries the number 118. When it was printed it was named Bo Ika by Prof. George Coedes which means Crow Well Inscription. It is included in his book Inscription du Cambodge. There was a big area (or city) named Bo Ika to the south of (Nakhon) Ratchasima. The antique pieces discovered from that area included an inscription called Charuk Hin Sai Si Daeng, literally meaning the Inscription of red sandstone of the size of 1.10 0.56 25 metres. The inscription got broken into two. On each side of it there is writing in Sanskrit. The script in which it is written was in vogue in Cambodia prior to the coming up of the city of Phra Nakhon (Angkor). The antiquity of the inscription is decided by its shape and alphabet which has Upadhmaniya that ceased to be in vogue from the 12 th cen. of the Buddhist era. The inscription has fourline verses in a metre called Sragdhara. It is written in bold letters that become smaller with each successive line with the last line so small as to be difficult of decipherment yuk....atta...te thasa (dasa). From what can be deciphered, it can be inferred that it is a Buddhist inscription that speaks about a king who belonged to Sri Canasa to the monks of which he made a grant of servants, male and female (dasas and dasis) and animals. It is the same kingdom which is variously called Sri Canasa or Canasapura. Canasapura figures in a Khmer inscription of B.E. 1482 written in Khom script that was discovered from Ayutthaya. CC-0. Prof. Satya Vrat Shastri

Bo-Ika Inscription Side-1 This inscription was written in Mahasakaraja 859 which is equated to 1480 B.E. or C. 937 and it might have come from Sri Canasa, an independent state outside the Khmer kingdom at that time. According to our estimate it would not have been composed in the area of the Chao Phraya basin including Ayutthaya but in the hilly area of Khorat. It is, however, safe to presume that the

mari pa CC-0. Prof. Satya Vrat Shastri Bolenscription Side-Bigitized by S 3 Foundation USA

Bo Ika Inscription stands at the very place where it was put up originally and not imported from elsewhere. The other side of the inscription is in Sanskrit which is incorrect and comprises twelve lines which constitute six verses in Sloka metre and one in the metre Upajati. Besides these there is writing in Khmer language that comprises five lines. The inscription in the front side starts with an eulogy of Phra Isuan (Siva). In its second stanza there is mention of one Amsadeva who was bestowed a city that he abandoned. It was that city whose inhabitants were followers of Buddhist religion. King Canasa looked after the city about which reference is made in the first side of the inscription. In the city King Amsadeva had installed a golden Sivalinga that had come from heaven in Mahasakaraja 790 (Saka era 790, Buddhist era 1411). The Sanskrit alphabet used in the second side is smaller in size than the one on the first one and is composed in the same period prior to the setting up of the city of Phra Nakhon (Angkor) in Cambodia. The date of the composition is 15 th cen. B.E. The inscription is a rare example of the preservation of the alphabet, e.g., n has a peculiar shape here with the upper circular shape larger than the usual one making it look like t. The part of the inscription in the Khmer language has names of male and female servants in bad, deeply curved, characters to impart to them an ancient look. The main utility of the inscription lies in its indicating that the entire area of Nakhon Ratchasima that was the centre of Canasa had not become part of Cambodia up to 1411 B.E. SIDE 1 9. t nye mahisya prthughanavapuso vinsati rbala (vatsah ) COOOOOO 2. (pa) ncasad dhenavasca stanabharaguravatpustavatsanuya (tah ) 3. dasidasa dasaiva pramuditamanaso (S) stadarddhasamkhya 4 . dattassanghaya bodhipranihitamanasa sricanasesva (rena )

SIDE 2 ebnate 1. vahicandrarkanetro yassarvvakarana (na)sarakah 2 . varsadhvajo - is suksmasca name (S) hantasya padarajah | 3 . kamvudesantare tyakta simasampraptavanasau 4 . ansadeva iti namna dhitiprajnah kulopamah | 5 . sarvvalaksanasampannah svatmanamaticintayan | 6 . niskrtya vayaso (S) rghena sarvvadravyena samstutah | 7 . lingam suvarna (na) samghatam surasuraganai (na) stu ... 8. (sva ) rgajanitam pu ... amratasya kalpitam | woll of nigh 6. (vi ) yadratnasvaranke (S) smin kale tat sthapayat tada 10 . sadravinanyeva so (S) smai pradacca bhaktitah | -- 11 . (utphu ) llanetra sphuritanano yat kalih pracandah - saitivrttih 12 . pi punyai (nyai ) rvividhairvicitrais SIDE 1 -- tairansadevasya vimanakalpah | 1. .....ta nye mahisya prthughanavapuso vinsatir bbala (vatsah) 2. (p)ancasad dhenavas ca stanabharaguravat pustavatsanuya (tah) 3. dasidasa dasaiva starddhasamkhya...... pramuditamanaso 4. dattas sanghaya bodhipranihitamanasa sricanasesva (rena) SIDE 2 1. vahnicandararkanetro yas sarvvakaran(n)asarakah 2. varsadhvajo.....is suksmas ca namehan tasya padrajah 3. kamvudesantare tyakta- CC-0. Simasammpraptava asa ew Delhi. Digitized by S 3 Foundation USA

. ansadeva iti namna dhitiprajnah kulopamah 5. sarvvalaksanah sampannah Gosvatmanamticintayan 6. niskrtya vayaso rdhena sarwadravyena samstutah 7. lingam suvarnasamghatam surasuraganais tu..... 8. (sva) rggajanitam pu- -amratasya kalpitam 9. (vi) yadratnasvaranke smin kale tat sthapayat tada 10. ...sadravinanyeva so smai pradac ca bhaktitah 11. (utphu)llanetrasphuritanano yat kalih pracandah.....saiti vrttih 12...pi punyair vividhair vicitairas tairansadevasya vimanakalpah Translation Side-1 1. The (following) four were gifted to the Sangha: Twenty buffaloes, stout and plump in body with young calves, fifty cows weighed down with heavy udders (lit. teats) with well-nourished calves trailing them (and) ten male and female servants in happy mind by the lord of Canasa with mind fixed in Bodhi. Side-2 1. I bow to the dust of the feet of Him who has bull on the flag, who has fire, moon and sun as His eyes, who is the propeller (the moving spirit behind) of all the means (of production) and is subtle.

. He got into the Kambu country with no (consideration of) territorial division under the name Amsadeva, he, the well-read one and wise, going well with his lineage. 3. Possessed of all the auspicious marks and thinking too much of himself (fully conscious of his own self) he was appreciated for his advanced age and every kind of work where he had shown his mettle. 4-5. He had installed in the year 790 the Linga, a mass of gold, a heavenly creation of the appearance of hogplum eliciting praise from both deities and demons. 6. Out of devotion he gifted for it riches. Even though there was ferocious Kali with the face swollen and eyes bulging, it appeared to be like Vimana, a balloon because of the manifold unique merits of Amsadeva (Lines 13-17 give the names of deities in Khmer language). Notes The inscription is in verse. Altogether three different metres have been used in it. The verse on Side One is in Sragdhara metre. Side Two has five verses in Anustubh metre. These are followed by a verse in the Upajati metre with three lines in Indravajra and one line in Upendravajra. In the fourth verse the third and the fourth quadrants are short of one syllable each. The inscription suffers from errors most of which in all probability are due to faulty engraving. There are a few grammatical errors as well. The emendations are suggested below. An attempt has also been made to restore in an odd case or two restore the broken text with the supply of a syllable conjecturally in the body of text itself in big brackets.

Side I Sanskrit Inscriptions of Thailand / 57 1. In line 1 visarga is to be added after mahisya, in line 2 guravat should be guravah, in line 4 dattas should be dattah. 2. In line 3 the sense of four is conveyed by the involved construction astardhasamkhya, numbering half of eight. Pramuditamanasah is to go with dasidasah. The broaken part after (a) stardhasamkhya could be pramanah 918 20 (a) stardhasankhyapramanah. The figure of four for things gifted fits in only if dasis blue and dasas are taken separately. Gifts: One, buffaloes, two, cows, three, female servants, four, male servants. Side II 1. In line 2 varsa...is orthographic error. It should be vrsa, ye has to be emended as yas, padarajah to be padrajah (the metre and the grammatical construction would lead to this reading). Name is grammatically incorrect. Vnam being Parasmaipadin, it should have been namami, hantasya is aham tasya, the a of aham is elided due to Sandhi, the m of aham is changed to " because of the following t, a common enough feature in Southeast Asian Sanskrit inscriptions. 2. In line 3...sima should have visarga after it, tyaktasimah, tykta sima yena, one who has given up border/s 3. In line 4 the nasal of Amsadeva is represented by n. In dhitiprajnah, dhiti could well stand for thoughts, wise in his thoughts or it could be taken as adhitiprajnah, the a of which is assimilated to the preceding a of namna to mean wise with study 4. Svatmanam aticintayan is a little tricky. Literally it is one who thinks, cintayan much, ati, of himself, svatmanam, who is fully conscious of what he is.

. In line 6 the text as it is, is not easy to comprehend. 6. In line 7 tam can be conjecturally supplied after stu the text after which is broken. So has the visarga after surasuraganai. The meaning of the line is not clear. 7. In line 8 pu..could have been punyam. Even with this addition the stanza remains metrically defective, its both the Padas having only seven syllables each. 8. In line 9 the date of the installation of the Linga is given. It is viyadratnasvara, svaras are 7, ratnas are nine and viyat (sky) is zero (sunya), the date thus comes to 790. Sthapayat is grammatically wrong. It should be asthapayat meaning installed.