No. 8. Karle Buddhist pillar inscription. Prakrit. Chaitya cave, on the fifth pillar, left row. (Sen.)

1881 Bhagvanlal Indraji-Burgess, ICTWI, p. 31, No. 8, and Plate; 1883 Buôhler-Burgess, ASWI IV, p. 91, No. 7.8, and Plate XLVII; 1902 Senart, EI, Vol. VII. p. 54 f., No. 8, and Plate III; Luders list No 1094;
Lu: -Fragment. Gift of the pillar (thabha) by the preacher (bhānaka) Sātimita (Svātimitra), the son of Nadi (?) and the disciple (aėtåvāsin) of the elder (thåra). . . . . . . . . of the bhayato (bhadanta) Dhamutariyas (Dharmîttarčyas) from Sopāraka (Ųķrpāraka). Compare No. 1095.

TEXT.

1.ū Sopārakā bhayatāna Dhamutara[ri]-
2. yāna sa[mā]nathasa therasa [A]tulasa
3. [a]ėtevāsisa bhāna-
4. kasa Nadipatisa Sātimitasa
5. saha . . . tiya thabho dāna[ė] mu [ || ]

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A pillar, the gift of Sātimita [Svātimitra] from Sopāraka, the husband of Nadi [Nandč], a preacher [and] pupil of the Thera Atula, (?) the . . of the venerable Dhamutariya [Dharmottarčya] school. (ASWI)

Sen. read:

1. Sopārakā bhayatānaė Dhamutari-
2. yāna sa . nathasa therasa .
3. bha . . sa aėtevāsisa bhāna-
4. kasa Na . pat . sa Sātimitasa
5. saha . . . t[i]hi [tha]bho dānamukha [ || ]

Notes
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For Pandit Bhagwānlāl`s reading and version see Cave-Temple Inscripions, p. 31. The inscription is much obliterated, probably intentionally, to substitute the next for it (see No. 9), and the words samānathasa (l. 2) and atulasa (2, 3) are by no means certain. I am unable to explain the former, though I suspect that it denotes some spiritual office, held by the Thera in the Dharmottarčya school; possibly it may be a mistake for samananāthasa, "the lord of the monks" or abbot. Bhānaka apparently corresponds to the Pāli bhāíaka, "a preacher," and probably means that Svātimitra recited and expounded the texts of the Dharmottarčyas. The Jains have a similar title vāchaka, "a reader," sometimes applied to their Yatis. I am unable to make out the last word, begining with mu, but the last letter is not laė, as Pandit Bhagwānlāl reads it. (ASWI)
(For Dharmottarčya) See Ind. Ant., vol. ix, pp. 300, 302; Vassilief, Le Bouddisme, p. 230.(ASWI)