Question

Read this short inscription and answer: In the year 33 of the maharaja Huvishka, (a Kushana ruler), in the first month of the hot season on the eighth day, a Bodhisatta was set up at Madhuvanaka by the bhikkhuni Dhanavati, the sister’s daughter of the bhikkhuni Buddhamita, who knows the Tipitaka, the female pupil of the bhikkhu Bala, who knows the Tipitaka, together with her father and mother.

 (a) How did Dhanavati date her inscription?

 (b) Why do you think she installed an image of the Bodhisatta?

 (c) Who were the relatives she mentioned?

 (d) What Buddhist text did she know? (e) From whom dicTshe learn this text?

Answer 1

(a) Dhanavati dated her inscription that she placed the inscription at Madhuvanaka in the first month of the hot season on the eighth day in the year 33 of the Maharaja named Havishka.

 (b)I think that she (the Bhikkhuni Dhanvati installed an image of the Bodhisatta to show that Mahayana sect of Budhhism was becoming popular day by day and Boddhisattas were considered great personalities in Buddhism during the reign of the Kushana rulers.

 (c)She has mentioned her own mother’s sister’s name Buddhamita. The lady was a Bhikkuni. She had also mentioned Bhikkuni Bala and her parents.

 (d)She knew the Tipitaka.

 (e)She learnt the text from the Bhikkhuni Buddhamita who was the female pupil of the Bala.