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Updates to A Kushan-period Sculpture
from the reign of Jaya Varma-, A.D. 184/185
Kathmandu, Nepal

Occasional corrections and updates will be made to this article as new material comes to light or as readers notice errors or possible improvements. Updates to the text of the article will be quoted in full. Updates or changes to other parts of the article (captions, footnotes, references, subsidiary pages, etc.) will be noted here without quoting the entire passages changed. If you notice any parts of the article that could be improved or changed, please use the Comments form to alert us. Thank you.

• December 2001: Latest printed version of this article, which appeared in Orientations, September 2001, becomes the main page for the article. The main differences between this shorter version and the previous version is that we have accepted the overall reading of di Castro and Garbini, with the excception that we do not agree to their reading of the date as 207 rather than 107. The latest version, while shorter than the previous and less detailed, has references to a few more recent studies.
• March 2000: Several important corrections of details in the article have been pointed out by Gerd Kreisel, Linden Museum Stuttgart, Germany. These can be found in the Comments page, and have been incorporated into the body of the article.
• December 1999: With the kind permission of the author, we present here an excerpt from An Inscribed Statue of the Year 207, by Angelo Andrea Di Castro and Riccardo Garbini: the authors disagree with the dating of the inscription proposed in our article. In a future note we will examine this issue further.
• August 1997:
• 8/13/97:section 1, para 1, originally, "In April 1992...", now "In early May 1992 ...".
• same, para 3, originally "sam*vat 107, most likely corresponding to AD 184/185,", now sam*vat 107, most likely corresponding to AD 184/185" (Please see additional note on Saka samvat.)
• "Had*iga-on" replaced throughout with "Ha-d*iga-on".
• section 3, caption fig. 9, was: "Photograph courtesy HMG Department of Archeology." now: "Photograph courtesy HMG Department of Archeology; photograph by Govind Ghimire, taken May 7, 1992."
• same, translation of inscription, was:
  "We supply the following tentative translation:

  In the year 107, the great king Jaya Varma-, the fourth (?) Great Lord."
  now:
  "We supply the following tentative translation:

  In the year 107, the supreme lord Jaya Varma-, (in the form of?) the four Great (Guardian) Kings."

• era dates throughout amended to read 77/78 for the original era of the S'aka samvat, and 184/185 for the date of the sculpture.
• was:
  Maha-ra-ja is a common word used in ancient inscriptions in both Nepal and India.
  now:
  Maha-ra-ja is a common word used in ancient inscriptions in both Nepal and India. The particle "pka" denoting "four" is somewhat problematic, and there was some conjecture that it related to the king's place in the line of the Licchavi dynasty, which seems unlikely; our present translation raises another possible interpretation, that the four great guardian kings, or four great protectors are implied. The concept of the four great Guardian kings was popular among the Buddhists, and usually expressed in the term caturmaha-ra-ja. This would partially account for the resemblance of the sculpture to a Yaksha figure, as noted by Khanal (see below, section 5, "Identity of the Sculpture").
• New footnote 5a: 5a. It would appear that the S'aka sam*vat as recognized in Nepal, was Ka-rtika-di, that is, the year began in the month of Ka-rtika (this tradition is preserved in the Nepal sam*vat which eventually replaced S'aka). The difference between a Saka sam*vat date and a CE or AD date then would be 78 years except for that period between the beginning of the new S'aka year in Ka-rtika (approximately October/November) and the beginning of the CE year on Jan. 1st, when the difference is 77 years. Obviously which applies of course depends on the month of S'aka date, which in the present case is not given.
• other updates to footnotes and references. Information shown as changed above in the body of the article was also changed on subsidiary pages.
• July 1996:
• 7/14/96: in section, 6. Jaya Varma-, para. 4; originally: " It is thus of interest to note that GV records the twelfth king preceding vis'vadeva (for vr*s*adeva) as Jaya Varma- (25) [See also Appendix I]. ", now: "It is thus of interest to note that GV records the twelfth king preceding vis'vadeva (for vr*s*adeva) as Jaya Varma-, while Jayadeva II's geneology in the Pashupati stele separates Jayadeva I from Vr*sadeva by the same number of kings (25)." Footnote 25 also amended.
• 7/14/96: table of Licchavi kings updated and enlarged. Footnotes added.
• 7/14/96: caption to figure 4 changed slightly, footnote 23 page number corrected.

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