Indian Art: A History of Indian Art from the Earliest Times up to the Third Century A.D. c15.s2.t1.1

c15.s2.t1.1

No less than seventeen inscribed āyaka-pillars were found which acquiant us with the history of local Ikshvāku dynasty and the monuments. The kings were of Brāhmanical faith but the queens were Buddhist and endowed these foundations. One of the rulers was King Chāmtimūla, whose uterine sister was Chāmtisiri. Her name occurs in nine pillar-inscriptions and she was the main benefactress who built the Mahāchetiya in the year 6 of King Vīrapurisadata, son of Chāmtimūla. Another inscription of this king dated in the year 20 was found at Jaggayyapeta. To the east of the Mahāchetiya Chāmtisiri also dedicated in the year 18 of the king a vihāra and a chaityagṛiha, referred to in the inscription firstly by this name, and secondly as a stone maṇḍapa surrounded by a cloister (chātusāla-parigahitam sela-maṇṭavam). The building was dedicated to the āchāryas of Aparamahāvinaseliya sect. Besides Chāmtisiri, paternal aunt (pituchhā) of the reigning king Vīrapurisadata, other ladies named in the inscriptions were also associated with these pious foundations. Another chaityagṛiha was built by Upāsikā Bodhisiri. It is interesting that the long inscription of Bodhisiri states that the shrine was dedicated to the Buddhist community of Tāmraparṇi (Ceylon), who took part in the conversion to Buddhism of the people of Kashmīra Maṇḍala, Gandhāra, Chīna, Tosali (Orissa), Aparānta (Konkan), Vaṅga, Vanavāsa (Karṇāṭa), Yavana (probably Alasanda or Alexandria) and Damila (Tamila land). She also constructed a śilā-maṇḍapa on the eastern gate of the Ghaṇṭasāla (Kaṇṭakaśaila) Stūpa. The hill on which her Stūpa stood is named as Chulla Dhammagiri (modern, Nāharāllaḍḍu, at a distance of 2 furlongs to the east of the great Stūpa on Śrīparvata.