Beitrage zur Erklarung der Senavarma-Inschrift.

• Author: Salomon, Richard
• Position: Book review

Beitrage zur Erklarung der Senavarma-Inschrift. By OSKAR VON HINUBER. Akademie der Wissen-schaften und der Literatur, Abhandlungen der Geistesund sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse 2003 Nr. 1. Mainz: AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN UND DER LITERATUR/Stuttgart: FRANZ STEINER VERLAG, 2003. Pp. 56.

In this monograph Oskar von Hinuber presents a new edition and study of the inscription of King Senavarma of Odi, which has been published three times previously (Bailey 1980, Fussman 1982, Salomon 1986). This inscription, which dates from sometime around the first half of the first century A.D., records on a gold plaque the king's dedication of a stupa and relics. It is one of only three records of the dynasty of the kings of Odi (the lower Swat Valley, in the modern Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan), the others being similar but much shorter Buddhist dedicatory records by Senavarma's father Ajitasena (Fussman 1986) and brother Varmasena (Salomon 2003a: 39-51). (1) Among the three Odi inscriptions, that of Senavarma, though the latest, is of the greatest historical and Buddhological interest, among other reasons because it is the longest surviving inscription (other than those of Asoka) in the Kharosthi script and Gandhari language; in the author's own words, it "gehort in mehrfacher Hinsicht zu den bedeutendsten epigraphischen Denkmalern aus dem alten Indien" (p. 7). Von Hinuber's justification for a fourth edition is clear and indisputable: despite the efforts of the previous editors, the inscription "kann ... noch immer nicht in allen Teilen als verstanden gelten" (p. 8), and his purpose, modestly stated but carried out with great success, is "einige weitere Stellen einem Verstandnis naher zu bringen."

Von Hinuber cites as the main reasons for the persistent problems in the interpretation of this difficult document the imperfect and imprecise graphic representation of the Gandhari language in Kharosthi script, the admixture into Gandhari of words and forms from other Middle Indic languages, and our still incomplete understanding of the Gandhari language itself (pp. 8-9). In order to overcome these limitations as far as possible, the author proposes the following principles ("Grundsatze[n]," p. 9) for the clarification of the remaining problematic passages: that previous interpretations resting on problematic or irregular semantic or grammatical analyses cannot be accepted as authoritative; that the identification of parallel passages from Buddhist texts provides the best confirmation of proposed interpretations; and that the entire inscription, despite its apparent peculiarities in structure, "auf einem wohl durchdachten Plan beruht and somit sinnvoll und zusammenhangend im Gedankengang ist" (p. 10). The new edition is not intended as a comprehensive one, but rather is complementary to the previous ones in that it concentrates on additions to or improvements of them (mainly with reference to Fussman 1982 and Salomon 1986). Words and passages that have already been explained to the author's satisfaction are not discussed in detail.

Following these general remarks in the first section ("Einleitung," pp. 7-11), von Hinuber proceeds to put these principles into effect in the main part of the monograph, "Text und Erklarung der Inschrift" (pp. 11-42). In addition to the Gandhari text and German translation, he provides a rendering of the Gandhari into Sanskrit, with the aim of making the sense of the original text more readily accessible to the reader ("Der Zweck der Umsetzung ist ... allein ein praktischer," p. 10). In his reinterpretation, the author utilizes the operating principles cited above, particularly the second and third, with great success. The following are only a few of many examples of the fruitful application of the author's second...