(Ãjeya) 1, and in the preceding line in place of Udayin it gives Aja. 2 Nandi-Vardhana occurs also in the Pradyota list of the Avanti kings, which means, as already pointed out in an earlier paper, 3 that Nandi-Vardhana succeeded to the throne of Avanti (capital Ujjain) as well. There his father again is called Ajak a and Aja by the Vayu, Brahmanda and Vishnu (see Text by Pargiter, 19) and the latter is explicitly stated in an old reading (dated 1729, Bodleian; Wilson No. 21; Pargiter, 19, n. 35) of the Matsaya to have been a Saiśunāka. Hence there is no doubt that Nandi's father is called both Aja and Udayin by the Purāņas. Both these names mean " the Sun". " "Nandas.' The Vayu gives a variant of Nandi's name in its Avanti list. It calls him Farti-Vardhana instead of Nandi-Vurdhara, Now the Prakrit form of Varti would be Vaṭṭi and Vați. That it ought to be Varta and not Varti is now proved by our inscription. Difference of a vowel-mark produced in 2,300 years of manuscript writing is excusable. In fact our inscriptions enhance the value of the Puranic record, as historical materials, to a very great degree by confirmation of their variant details. The forms of names which I had regarded as corrupt (e.g. Varti) turn out to be based on real history. The variant details also show that different Purāņas drew upon independent data. Nandi in later times was called Nanda. Northern Buddhists have him as Nanda and his son (Puranic Maha-Nandi or Maha-Nanda), as Maha-Nanda.5 The Jains count him, his son, and his father in "the Nandas". Khāravela's inscription has the form 1 Cf. Panini, IV. I, 123. The Subhra group contains many proper names out of which Aja seems to be one. In any case the rule is not limited to the enumeration which is not exhaustive, being an Akṛiti-Gana. 2 Corruptly Àja 'yaḥ (Smritaḥ) "he who is reputed as Aja ". Cf. other Purapas in Pargiter's Text, p. 22. 3 J.B.O.R.S., I., 79, p. 106-8. ♦ Hence, probably, the Matsya calls him Süryaka in the Pradyota list. 5 J.B.O.R.S., I., 82-83. Ibid., 102. Nan da. The Purāņas also, indirectly, call him a "Nanda" when they give 100 years as the aggregate of the reign-periods of the Nandas, meaning thereby the early Nandas as opposed to the Neo-Nandas. The hundred years' aggregate is made up of the 8 years of the sons of Maha-Nanda, 35 of Mahā-Nanda, 40 of Nandi, the Vardhana, 8 years of Munda 19 years of Anuruddha. The later two were evidently elder brothers of Varta Nandi. The Saiśunāka Nandas were distinguished from the later, illegitimate Nandas by adding the word Nava (=New). This is borne out by a Jaina text which designates the last Nanda, defeated by Chandragupta, as "Nava-Nanda "2 Bhāsa whose date I have suggested as the end of the first century B.C. has a fascinating drama Drama "Statues" by entitled "The Statues Bhasa. "3 (Pratima) on the Rāmāyaṇa story. On the death of Dasaratha, Bharata is called by the ministers from Kekaya, his maternal home. Having been brought up by his maternal relatives he is a stranger to the kingdom of his father. He has not been told that his father was dead. To break the news the dramatist introduces him, on his way home, cutside the capital, to a temporal temple, a temple in all appearance but not a place of worship; it bore no flag, no bells and other outward signs of a temple. It was open to the public, and there was no gate-keeper. Bharata enters the temple and sees a number of images. He admires "the stones" for the "exquisiteness of execution ", for "expression and its movements in the portrait forms," and wonders whether J.B.O.R.S., I. 75, 112, 115-6. # दिजो वरयचिवासीत् नवनन्द स शंसति । अष्टोत्तरशतश्चो के नैन्दो मन्त्रिणमीचते ॥ Kalpa-subodhikā, VIII, 68, cited in Jaina Piskrita Eregelışɛďa (Kulim "Abhidhāna-Rajendra ", Vol. IV, sub "Thula-bhadra. “ J.A.S.B., 1913, p. 289. Pratima, Act III. (Travancore Government edition.). 'अहो क्रियामाधुर्य पाषाणानाम । काहो भावगतिराल तिगाम |