[INDOLOGY] Second Apsidal Temple Inscription F at Nagarjunikonda

[Stefan Baums]

Forwarded on behalf of Vincent.

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From: vincent.tournier at lmu.de
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Second Apsidal Temple Inscription F at
Nagarjunikonda
Date: 14 July 2025 at 10:11:58 CEST
To: indology list <indology at list.indology.info>

Dear Palaniappan, 

I can confirm that this important inscription was re-edited by
us on the basis of the best witness available, namely the
rubbings preserved in Leiden University library (this piece of
information is available here). We also photographed the stone
in 2017, but sections of this large slab have unfortunately
peeled off.

As a rule, every inscription from the Andhra region is
systematically re-read before being published online on the
EIAD website, and now on DHARMA, and it is only in a few cases
where we did not secure any documentation that we resort to
reproducing earlier editions (always specifying it, when this
is the case). A detailed explanation of our method, and a full
inventory of the ca. 1000 inscriptions from pre-7th century
Andhra will appear later this year in a volume dedicated to
this corpus with Brill (open access). 

For this particular inscription (EIAD 20), Vogel’s edition was
in fact very good, and we only made small improvements in the
reading. For the critical phrase you are interested in, I can
confirm that the reading -yavana-damila-palura- is reasonably
secure. See, for instance, my discussion in the enclosed
article (p. 55, n. 97). You can contact me off list if you
want to see the scan of the rubbing, which is a very heavy
file. 

With best wishes, 

Vincent
___________
Prof. Dr. Vincent Tournier
Professor of Classical Indology 
LMU Munich — Department for Asian Studies
Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie
Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1 | 80539 München | Deutschland
Tel.: +49 (0)89 2180-5501

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On 14 Jul 2025, at 08:22, Dániel Balogh via INDOLOGY
<indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

    Dear Palaniappan,
    the inscription has been edited digitally for the EIAD
    project by Arlo Griffiths and Vincent Tournier. The EIAD
    texts have been ingested into the DHARMA corpus, but not
    re-edited for DHARMA. The digital edition is available
    here: https://dharmalekha.info/texts/INSEIAD00020
    However, looking at the text and the critical apparatus,
    it seems that the digital edition is primarily an
    electronic version of Vogel's original printed edition,
    i.e. the text has probably not been re-edited and compared
    with the original or a good estampage. Arlo or Vincent may
    be able to say more, but I'm afraid there's nothing at the
    moment other than Vogel's original comment.
    Best wishes,
    Daniel

    On Mon, 14 Jul 2025 at 00:04, Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan via
    INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

        Dear Indologists,

         

        In “Prakrit Inscriptions from a Buddhist Site at
        Nagarjunikonda”, the Second Apsidal Temple Inscription
        F (EI, vol. 20, l. 1, p. 22), includes the names “Yava
        [na-] Da[mila- Pa]lura-“. Regarding these names, J.
        Ph. Vogel, the author, footnotes the following.

         

        “The words which I read Yavana-Damila-Palura are not
        quite certain. The Da of Damila is still legible and
        the long-drawn top strokes of the remaining two
        aksharas, have led me to the conjectural reading mila,
        the body of the akshara m being partly preserved. The
        Pa of Palura is conjectural.”

         

        I would like to know if any later work (like ERC’s
        DHARMA project) has been done on this inscription that
        brings more certainty to the reading.

         

        Thank you in advance.

         

        Regards,

        Palaniappan

         

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-- 
Stefan Baums, Ph.D.
Institut für Indologie und Tibetologie
Ludwig‐Maximilians‐Universität München