No. 1. Kodavolu (Koäavali) well inscription. Prakrit.

1908 Konow, ZDMG LXII, p. 592; Luders list No 1341; H. Krishna Sastri - EI, XVIII, No. 34.
Lu: - Establishment of the earth-dwelling (bhómivåùa) of the minister (amacha).
- raãî Vasiòhèputa sàmi-Siri-Chaäasàtasa savachharå 10 3 (?) hå pa 3 diva dasamå (?)
(HKS) Going in a north-westerly direction from Piòhàpuram, a station on the East Coast Railway, for a distance of about 9 miles along the Sàmalkîòa-Kattipóäi road, the village of Koäavali is sighted. It is situated not very far from the right side of the road. Proceeding thence for nearly two miles again in a north-westerly direction one reaches the foot of a range of hills covered with thin forest vegetation. From here the place called "Dõanam-äibbà" [Compare Dhana Bàäu near Jaggayyapåta; Burgess's 'Buddhist Stópas of Amaravati," p, 107.] - 'the treasure-mound' - is reached by a gravelly foot-path running along the slope of the hill, which appears to have been once provided with steps of rubble stone. Struggling two or three furlongs along this unwelcome path we come to the crown of the hillock and to the mound 'Dhanam-äibbà' on it. Here are found the remains of what looks like a Buddhist stópa consisting mostly of large-sized bricks and sometimes unhewn stone [Mr. Rea who discovered it for the first time has referred to it in his report for 1907-08, p, 8. He says that at the foot of the hills are the remains of a fort which, however, I was not able to identify]. On the southern side of the mound are seen also portions of a structure built of cut and dressed stone. The four rock cut wells on the south and west sides of the mound, 4 to 5 feet square and 6 to 7 feet deep, are of peculiar interest and seem to have been used once for storing water for the use of the occupants of the Buddhist monastery, as the mound may prove to be when excavations are properly carried out.
On the north wall of one of the wells on the western side of the mound measuring 5' 8 1/2" long by 5' 5 1/4" broad and 7' 2" deep, is engraved in 6 lines the Àndhra inscription, edited below, in Bràhmè characters of about the 3rd century A.D. This inscription which was published in 1908 by Dr. Konow in ZDMG, Vol. LXII, p. 591 f. has been noticed as No. 1341 by Dr. Luders in his List of Bràhmè Inscriptions in Vol. X, above. As remarked by Dr. Sten Konow in the Director-General of Archeology's Annual Survey Report for 1907-08, p. 225, this is the only lithic record hitherto discovered of the Àndhra king Chaäasàta, who is already known to us from a number of coins found in tlie Kistna and the Godavari districts. My friend Mr. G. R. Krishnama Acharlu, B.A., of the Madras Epigraphical Department has also spent some hours with me in reading the inscription directly from the stone; and the text given below is the joint production of both of us. The accompanying facsimile plate is reproduced from an inked estampage prepared under my direct supervision. The inscription thus deciphered will be seen to differ much from the published text of Dr. Sten Konow. The object of the record, for instance, was not the establishment of the earth-dwelling (bhumi vesa) of an unnamed minister (amacha), but was the establishment of the gift (dhama) of a khaìhgu (rock-cut well ?) by the minister Sasa of Khaääavali-the ancient form of the present village name Koäavali. [If, however, the reading bhumivesa (bhómiveùman) of the learned Doctor is accepted, I would observe a striking coincidence in the term bhumigðha which occurs twice in the Sundarakàíäa of the Ràmàyana, (T. R. K.'s Edition, Chapters XII, 14 and XV, 4) where, in both instances, the commentator Gîvindaràja explains tbe term as bhómaubilagðhà. The context also shows that these underground cellars of Ràvaía's Palace and Pleasure-garden were primarily meant for hiding objects from the view ot the enemy. The same may have been he case with these so-called Rock-cut Wells of the Piòhàpuram forest which surely must have formed part of the Daíäaka-forest and as such must have been once haunted by wicked Ràkøasas.] If this interpretation is right, the details of the date would correspond to Màrgaùirøa bahuëa prathamà, somewhere in December 210 A.D., the second year of Chaìda-svàti.

TEXT. (HKS)

1 Sidhaì [|*] Raã[î] Vàsiòhè-
2 putasa sami-siri-
3 Chaìäasàt[i][sa] [ra]ji-vachhare 2
4 ma 1 he pa 2 d[i] 1 Khaääa[va]li-
5 amacha-Sa[sa]mi khagu-dhama
6 òhàpita [||*]
__________________
Direct from the stone.
L. 1. Spaces are left in the original after the complete words: -Sidhaì, raãî, etc., as shown in the text. After Sami-siri-Chaìäasàtisa in l. 8 and after Sasami in l. 6, where we should have expected a space, it is wanting. The same system of separating words by spaces is found in the Hàthigumphà inscription of Khàravåla, the Myàkadoni inscription of Puëumàvi (above Vol. XIV, plate facing p. 155) and the Hèrahaäagalli inscription of Ùiva-Skanda-varman, EI, I, plate facing p. 6.
L. 2. (for sami)[The plate gives sà -Ed.]