Lands of Asia layouts (Eng) 26.11.21

3.1
the names of the contents of the vessels, personal names and sometimes religious
formulae. An example of this is a bilingual inscription, in Bactrian and Kharoshthi, on
a vessel found at an excavation site at a Buddhist monastery in Old Termez. It reads:
‘The gift of Buddhashira, preacher of the law dharma’. (From the original Russian
translation by G. Grek and V. Livshits).
This votive inscription suggests that Buddhashira, a preacher of dharma, i.e. the
law, presented this vessel as a gift to a Buddhist temple. Another interesting Bactrian
inscription is one found on the rim of a khum at the site of Zartepa; it translates as
‘…god Shiva-Visha’. The inscription on a large khum found at the excavation of a
Buddhist temple in Dalverzintepa is quite different. Here, the beginning of the phrase
has survived and reads: ‘This is written by me…’.
‘Graffiti’ inscriptions on the walls of the caves of the Karatepa Buddhist
monastery in Old Termez are very well known. They have been studied by V. Livshits,
H. Humbach and J. Harmatta. The inscriptions were discovered by B. Stavisky’s
expedition while carrying out an in-depth study of this outstanding monument of
Buddhist culture in Central Asia from 1960 onwards. These inscriptions are mainly
visitors’ inscriptions, giving the names of Bactrians (e.g. Borzomiro, Oromazdo) who
came to worship at the Buddhist shrines. In some cases they begin with the words:
ΚΑΛΔΟ ΜΑΛΟ (A)ΓΑΔΟ…, which mean ‘When (they) came here’. However, J.
Harmatta read one of the inscriptions giving the name of this Buddhist monastery as
САΔО ГА(В)O, which means ‘the Hundred Caves’. This reading was not accepted by
other scholars of Buddhist inscriptions from Karatepa. Another significant Bactrian
inscription was discovered by B. Turgunov during excavations at the site of Airtam.
A stone relief with the figures of a standing woman and a seated man was found in
one of the rooms. A six-line Bactrian inscription in monumental script was carved on
its base. Unfortunately, only fragments of the inscription have survived because the
surface of the base has been destroyed. It originally had about 350 to 360 letters. Each
of the first five lines contained 60 to 65 letters, while the sixth line had 51 letters (260
letters have survived fully or partially).
The best preserved line is the sixth line, as most of it had been buried in the earth.
We were able to decipher the final phrase of the inscription when we first examined it,
and made out the following words: ‘…and this was written by Mirozado by order of
Shodia’. Later, in spite of its poor condition, we were able to reconstruct the content of the
inscription and identify a number of previously unknown Bactrian words. The inscription
tells us that, in the fourth year of the Kushan king Huvishka’s rule, a certain Shodiya was
sent to Airtam to restore a Buddhist monastery which had fallen into disrepair.
The inscription was read by V. Livshits and E. Rtveladze; its latest translation is
as follows:
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