Buddhist Inscriptions of Andhradesa (An Old and Rare Book)

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Discovering Buddhist inscriptions engraved in Brahmi script and Prakrit language has been a matter of passion and fascinating subject for many a scholar since middle of the last century. Thanks to James Princep for decipherment of the Brahmi script which prompted several orientalists from West to take up the study with missionary zeal and devotion, namely James Burgess, Alexander Rea, H.Luders, E. Hultzsch, G. Buhler, A.H. Longhurst, Robert Sewell, J.Ph. Vogel, E. Senart, F. Kielhorn, W.E. Elliot, Sten Konow, A.C. Burnell and J.F. Fleet. Since the beginning of the present century, the cue was taken up by the Native scholars like D.C. Sircar, R.P. Chanda, G.S. Gai, A. Ghosh, T.N. Ramachandran, Rangaswamy Saraswathi, H. Krishna Sastry, O.C. Gangoly, Mallammpalli Somasekhara Sarma, C. Sivaramamurthy, R. Subrahmanyam, V. Venkayya, I.K. Sarma, Nelaturi Venkataramanaiah, P.V. Parabrahma Sastry, B.N. Sastry, S. Sankaranarayanan, S.S. Ramachandra Murthy, T.V.G. Sastry, V.V. Krishna Sastry, M.D.Sampath, K.V.Ramesh, N.Mukunda Rao, C.A. Padmanabha Sastry and J. Varaprasada Rao, who also worked hard in unearthing several Buddhist records and deciphering them. The compilers also take this opportunity to thank Dr. N.Jitendra Das, Superintending Archaeologist ASI for rendering valuable services in the preliminary stages.

Till now, about 500 Buddhist inscriptions are reported from Andhra Pradesh. A majority of them were deciphered, edited and published in various research journals. Inspite of the yeoman service rendered by those erudite scholars, unfortunately the back number of those journals are not available to the present generation of scholars interested in pursuing their studies on Buddhism and its various aspects.

Hence realising this lacunae, it was late Dr. B.S.L. Hanumantha Rao who thought of bringing out a comprehensive work on Buddhist inscriptions in Andhra Pradesh entitled "Corpus of Buddhist inscriptions".

The gospel of the Buddha reached Andhradesa during his life time. Buddha started his mission by exhorting the fifty four disciples, soon after turning the wheel of Dharma at Isipatna to go forth in all directions for the good of the many, for the happiness of many and out of compassion for the world and preach Dharma which is excellent in the beginning, excellent in the middle and excellent in the end, both in spirit and letter. These early apostles were all members of merchant families, well acquainted with the trade routes connecting different parts of the country. Perhaps, that is how Bavari had come to hear of the teachings of the Lord and sent his sixteen disciples to the omniscient Lord and seek answers for his various doubts. The Dhamma was enthusiastically welcomed in this land and soon the masses took refuge in the Triratna. Compared to Vedism and Jainism which also made inroads at the same time, Buddhism held a greater appeal.

But the real fillip for the rapid spread of Buddhism came in the 4th century B.C. when the Second Council was held at Vaishali to decide on the legitimacy of the Ten points of Vinaya Rules espoused by some liberals. The order of the Sangha broke on the controversial issue into two, Sthaviras-the conservative core of the Sangha, Maha Sanghikas, liberal interpreters of Vinaya. The Maha Sanghikas having lost their ground in Madhya desa gradually migrated to South and other parts of the country to spread their view of the Dharma. By the time, the Third Council was held hundred years later during the reign of Asoka under the guidance of Moggaliputta Tissa, delegates of as many as six sects from Andhra i.e. Chaityaka, Purvasaila, Aparasaila, Uttarsaila, Rajagirika, Siddarthika, all described as Andhakas participated.