Maurya and Shunga Art c13.5.3

c13.5.3

While these names are to be ascribed to the royalty and the nobility there is a host of other names of donors in the Barhut inscriptions who may be said to belong to the class of church-dignitaries (ārya panthaka) and to the wealthy landed and mercantile classes. In one instance two ladies of the same family and a gentleman together made a gift; in a second the citizens of a town collectively made a gift; while there is a third instance where the Buddhist ‘dāyakas’ of Purikā collectively offered a donation. There can be no doubt that the majority, if not all, of the donors were either Buddhists or active supporters of the faith and the Saṃgha, and they were mostly townfolks. One of the votive inscriptions record the gift of a nun of the local monastic abode --‘avāsikāya bhikhuniyā dānam’; it is therefore reasonable to argue that the monks and nuns of the local Saṃghārāma were the moving figures responsible for rearing up the Railing and the Gateways and they were the trustees of the gifts made. The donations came from such places as Pāṭaliputra Kauśāmbī, Chekula (Caul, near Bombay), Karahakaṭa (Karhad in Satara district), port of Śrīputra in the extreme south-west, Purikā, Bhogavardhana, Nāsika, Paḍela (Pandaria in Bilaspur district, C. P. or Parel near Bombay ), Mathurā, Bhojakaṭa (in Vidarbha, Berar), Asitamasā etc. Buddhism in the second century B. C.