Integrity Score 570
No Records Found
No Records Found
Among many inscriptions at Vikramshila apart from those mentioned above, mention may be made of the terracotta sealing discovered in 1973-74, which showed, in the countersunk surface, a line of writing in early Nagari characters of about the 10th century and in Sanskrit language, which read ‘Shri Purushottamapalah’ and another recovered in 1975-76, engraved on the pedestal of a Tara image, in corrupt Sanskrit written in proto-Bengali characters of the 11th century, recording the gift of Pratihara Udayavara. Upon analysis of the inscriptions, it is surprising that no direct epigraphic evidence recording the patronage by the Pala rulers has been found as yet at Vikramshila, which is fundamentally different from those encountered at contemporaneous Somapura and Nalanda. Another strange phenomenon is the near absence of inscriptions from the early centuries of the monastery, believed to have been founded by Dharmapala around the mid-eighth century, with most inscriptions, barring one seal from the 9th-10th century, all other inscriptions datable to the 11th and 12th centuries with again barring the inscription of Sahura datable to the 12th century on palaeographic grounds, none other attributable to any royal authority. The earliest seal datable to the 9th-10th centuries contains the legend Sri Rajyagraha Mahavihar, probably inferring to a great monastery of the royal house.
To be continued....