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76 LOKESH CHANDRA

IX. KELURAK INSCRIPTION OF SAJKA 704 = A. D. 7S2

This inscription (D44) is written in Pre-Nfigan as the royal preceptor was from Gaudldvlpa or Bengal. It records the installation of an image of Martjughosa, and Klrtistambha by King (naravara) Sn-Sańgrftma-dhanartjaya. The first stanza of mańgaJAcarana hails four names :

Lokeśvara sugatapad-aksara

Bhadreśvara sugatapad - Aksara

Visvcśvara sugatapad - Aksara

—śvara (perhaps VAgfśvara) sugatapad - aksara.

He has the status of a Sugata/ Buddha, and is immutable / aksara. The four Tśvaras can be the epithets of Martjughosa, but the possibility of lheir bcing his four manifestations cannoi be ruled out. Bhadra-svar-eśvara-raja Martjughosa is illustrated in the Pantheon of 360 Ieons just after the eight-armed Dharmadhalu-VagTśvara-Maftjughosa (Clark 1937: 2. 262 nos. 151, 152), among the lhirteen forms of Martjughosa / Maftjuśfl. The Viśveśvara of the inscription can be compared with Trailokya-vaśyadhi-kara Martjughosa (ibid. 263 no. 154). The names Bhadreśvara and Viśveśvara are not found in Mallmann 1975, Edgerton, or in the Buddhist Sadhanamalas. Sarkar*s notę (1971: 1. 47n. 24) tries to link the four names with Siva or the Five Tathagatas, but bolh the suggcstions are far-fctchcd.

The second stanza is difficult to interpret. The word lokeśa occurs thrice in the stanza and every time with a dilTerent denotation. Lokeśvara (ends Tśvara) rcfcrs to Amiiabha who is a Tathagata and thus denotes a higher rank. Lokeśa (ends Fśa) refers to Bodhisattvas and has a lesser status. Fśvara and Fśa are differentiatcd semantically. One who (yah) dares to overwhelm Lokeśa (= Padmapani Avalokiteśvara) who bears Amitabha, the lord of the worlds (Lokcśvara) on his forehcad, he (= Martjughosa) is the master of the world (lokeśa) illuminating all the regions, pays homage to that Master of the world (Lokcśa=Martjughosa). Martjughosa is the elocutor of vaipulya sutras, of Mah3y3na and thereby he illumines the world. In the Lotus Sutra, it is he who undcrslands and resolves the doubts of Maitreya Bodhisattva, of monks and nuns, of the laity, and of heaven!y beings when the Buddha sheds so great a luminous ray rcpleting the world with splendour. Maitreya Bodhisattva qucstions the why of the universal radiation of a ray from the

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urnA of Sakyamuni. It is Martjuśri who alone can and does explain (The Threefold Lotus Sutra p. 34-35). Thus while bolh Martjughosa and PadmapSni are Bodhisattvas, and Padmapani has a Tathagata on his forehead, yet it is Martjughosa who is superior to Padmapani in that he alone can rcsolve doubts about the saddharma which the Buddha preaches, namely, the new way of vaipuIya-yAna. The prose order of the second stanza is : AmitAbham