History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c16.s3.4

c16.s3.4

Of the three Barābar caves with dedicatory inscriptions (Plate V), the first two, according to Hultzsch's restoration of the texts,³ were given to the Ājīvikas in the twelfth year of Aśoka's consecration. The first cave is named in the inscription Nigoha (Skt. Nyagrodha) (Plate V, i), and the second is referred to merely as a cave in the Khalatika Mountain (Plate V, ii). Little doubt can exist about the interpretation of these two inscriptions, but the third (Plate V, iii) has been badly defaced, and is in parts illegible. Hultzsch reconstructs the text as:—