Mora Well Inscription

Mora Well Inscription
Ancient Sanskrit inscription
Mathura GMM Q.1
Writing Sanskrit[1]
Created 1st Century CE
Place Mathura, Uttar Pradesh
Present location Government Museum, Mathura
Identification GMM Q.1
Mathura museum
Mathura museum (India)

The Mora Well inscription is an ancient Sanskrit inscription found in the village of Mora about 7 miles (11 km) from Mathura, India.[2][3]

Description

The Mora Well Inscription makes an early mention of pratima (murti, images), stone shrine (temple) and calls the five Vrishnis as bhagavatam.[2][4][5] It is dated to the early decades of 1st century CE.[2] The Hindu Puranas, such as the Vayu Purana in section 97.1-2, identifies the five Vrishnis as Samkarsana, Vasudeva, Pradyumna, Samba and Aniruddha.[2][5] The inscription may also signify the growth of Bhagavatism in 1st millennium BCE to Vaishnavism by the early centuries of the common era, and a process by which heroes and heroic ideas attract devotion.[2]

The inscription mentions the name of the Great Satrap Rajuvula,[6] and was apparently made by his son.[7]

The discovery of the Mora Well Inscription in the 19th-century led archaeologists to excavate the Mora Mound in 1911-12, near the Mora well.[8] They found large inscribed bricks of a round brick building with the name of a female, probably the daughter of king Brihasvatimitra from Kausambi of late 2nd century BCE. In the mound were also found two male torsos, as well as a lower half of a female torso with inscribed names Kanishka and Tosha, confirming the possible link between the inscription stone and the mound.[8] Some scholars, such as Chandra, state that the five Vrishnis mentioned in the inscription is a reference to the Pandavas of the Mahabharata. Others state that the five heroes in the inscription were ancient kings of India who became deified because of their heroic accomplishments. The third theory is that these five heroes are the same that are found in both Hindu and Jain mythology.[8]

Inscription

The discovered inscription is incomplete.[3] The opening is hybrid Sanskrit, while the remaining three lines are standard Sanskrit.[1] It reads:[4][3]

1. mahaksatrapasa ramjuvulasa putrasa svami ...
2. bhagavatam vrsnina[m] pamcaviranam pratima[h] sailadevagr[he] ...
3. ya[s] tosayah sailam srimadgrham atulam udadha samadhara ...
4. arcadesam sailam pamca jvalata iva paramavapusa ...

– Mora Well Inscription, 1st century CE

Translation

Sonya Quintanilla translates it as,

. . . of the son of mahaksatrapa Ramjuvula, svami . . .
the images of the holy pamcaviranam of the Vrishnis . . .
the stone shrine... whom the magnificent matchless stone house of Tosa was erected and maintained...
five objects of adoration made of stone, radiant, as it were with highest beauty...

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Richard Salomon (1998). Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages. Oxford University Press. pp. 84–88. ISBN 978-0-19-509984-3.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Doris Srinivasan (1997). Many Heads, Arms, and Eyes: Origin, Meaning, and Form of Multiplicity in Indian Art. BRILL Academic. pp. 211–214, 308-311 with footnotes. ISBN 90-04-10758-4.
  3. 1 2 3 Heinrich Lüders and Klaus Ludwig Janert (1961), Mathurā inscriptions, Göttingen : Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, OCLC 717966622, page 154, image on page 301
  4. 1 2 Sonya Rhie Quintanilla (2007). History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura: Ca. 150 BCE - 100 CE. BRILL Academic. p. 260. ISBN 90-04-15537-6.
  5. 1 2 Lavanya Vemsani (2016). Krishna in History, Thought, and Culture. ABC-CLIO. pp. 202–203. ISBN 978-1-61069-211-3.
  6. ↑ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Cambridge University Press for the Royal Asiatic Society. 1911. p. 151.
  7. ↑ Gupta, Parmanand (1989). Geography from Ancient Indian Coins & Seals. Concept Publishing Company. p. 58. ISBN 9788170222484.
  8. 1 2 3 John M. Rosenfield (1967). The Dynastic Arts of the Kushans. University of California Press. pp. 151–152. GGKEY:0379L32LPNJ.
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