History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas: A Vanished Indian Religion c16.s3.40

c16.s3.40

The Lomas Ṛṣi cave bears on the door-jamb the short inscriptions *Bodhimūla* and *Kleśa-kāntāra*, in Gupta characters of two different sizes and hands. This indicates its later occupation by Buddhists. Above the porch is a longer inscription of Anantavarman Maukhari,⁴ in which he records that he placed in the cave an image of Kṛṣṇa. Anantavarman apparently visited the Hill before his accession to the throne, for the inscription refers to his father Śārdūlavarman in the present tense, and gives the son no royal titles.⁵ It must therefore have been engraved shortly before *c.* A.D. 450,⁶ and the caves cannot have been evacuated by the Ājīvikas at a later date than this.