Beitrage Zur Erklarung Der Senavarma-Inschrift (Book Review‪)‬

Beitrage zur Erklarung der Senavarma-Inschrift. By OSKAR VON HINUBER. Akademie der Wissen-schaften und der Literatur, Abhandlungen der Geistesund sozialwissenschaftlichen Klasse 2003 Nr. 1. Mainz: AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN UND DER LITERATUR/Stuttgart: FRANZ STEINER VERLAG, 2003. Pp. 56. In this monograph Oskar von Hinuber presents a new edition and study of the inscription of King Senavarma of Odi, which has been published three times previously (Bailey 1980, Fussman 1982, Salomon 1986). This inscription, which dates from sometime around the first half of the first century A.D., records on a gold plaque the king's dedication of a stupa and relics. It is one of only three records of the dynasty of the kings of Odi (the lower Swat Valley, in the modern Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan), the others being similar but much shorter Buddhist dedicatory records by Senavarma's father Ajitasena (Fussman 1986) and brother Varmasena (Salomon 2003a: 39-51). (1) Among the three Odi inscriptions, that of Senavarma, though the latest, is of the greatest historical and Buddhological interest, among other reasons because it is the longest surviving inscription (other than those of Asoka) in the Kharosthi script and Gandhari language; in the author's own words, it "gehort in mehrfacher Hinsicht zu den bedeutendsten epigraphischen Denkmalern aus dem alten Indien" (p. 7). Von Hinuber's justification for a fourth edition is clear and indisputable: despite the efforts of the previous editors, the inscription "kann ... noch immer nicht in allen Teilen als verstanden gelten" (p. 8), and his purpose, modestly stated but carried out with great success, is "einige weitere Stellen einem Verstandnis naher zu bringen."