buddhism in gandhra 53
dialect, the so-called Niya or Kroraina Prkrit.^23 A dedicatory stone
inscription was found even in Luoyang 24 and recently a stone
Buddha with a pedestal inscription in Kharo h came to light at
Shifosi in Chang’an county.^25 The content of the majority of the
Kharo h inscriptions is Buddhist,^26 including inscriptions commemo-
rating donations to the sagha that were made in the form of relics
of the Buddha, buildings, sculptures or jars. Most of them, however,
contain very short epigraphic texts only. One such inscription is that of
Senavarma, the king of Oi, which represents the longest complete text
in Gndhr^27 discovered so far. Written on a small gold leaf it describes
the consecration of the Ekak a stpa after it had been restored with
the nancial help of Senavarma.^28
- Sources on the History of Buddhism in
Gandhra—Transmission and Development
For the study of the history of Buddhism in Gandhra we can rely on
several kinds of sources: a) the inscriptions of Aoka, b) many inscrip-
tions and graf ti made by Buddhist pilgrims that came to light just in
the recent years, c) antiquities recovered by archeologists in this area,^29
d) Buddhist manuscripts found in that region, e) Sinhalese chronicles
and the reports of the Chinese Buddhist pilgrims Faxian (5th
century), Xuanzang (629–645) and Huizhao (650–715).
According to a late legend,^30 Pukkusti, the king of Takail (Taxila),
(^23) Salomon 1998a, p. 159.
(^24) Brough 1961, pp. 517–530.
(^25) Salomon 1998a, p. 160.
(^26) Fussman 1989, p. 451.
(^27) von Hinüber 2003, p. 7: “Zugleich ist die Senavarma-Inschrift trotz der Neufunde
von zahlreichen literarischen buddhistischen Texten auf Birkenrinde... der längste
zusammenhängende, d.h. ohne Lücken überlieferte Text in Gndhr und in Kharo h-
Schrift.” This inscription dates from ca. the middle of the rst century AD. All Gndhr
manuscripts as e.g., the Gndhr Dharmapada are more or less fragmentary.
(^28) von Hinüber 2003, p. 7.
(^29) The research on Buddhist sites in Afghanistan began with the foundation of the
Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan in 1922. Cf. von Hinüber 1984,
p. 99. Taxila was excavated by Sir John Marshall and his successor in the Archaeological
Survey of India, Sir Mortimer Wheeler. Cf. Brandtner 2001, pp. 36ff. After the Second
World War Italian archaeologists began to work in Swat.
(^30) Lamotte 1958, pp. 110f.; Malalasekera 1937–1938, s.v. Pukkusti. This legend
is mentioned in Buddhaghosa’s (4th/5th century AD) “Commentary on the Middle
Collection (of the Discourses)”, Ps V, pp. 33f.