Hyderabad: In a rarest of the rare finds, Heritage Telangana’s archaeologists have found the first inscription in Brahmi script found in south India having the word ‘bramhachari’ written on it in Prākrit language, dating back to 2nd Century BC.
Earlier, the term bramhachari (charita-brahmachariya) was found in the Naneghat inscription datable to 1st Century BC in Maharashtra.
The Heritage Telangana team has been conducting excavations at Chada village of Motakonduru mandal in Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district for the past few weeks. Among the startling revelations was one stone inscription, which records the gift of a slab (pato) to the Buddha vihara by a navakāmika (architect) named Sadhirika on the 27th day of grīshma-ṛitu.
It records the installation (patiśapito) of a slab by a person Dhi.sa, a bramhachari (an ascetic), who was the son of Bhāṇaka of Bōdhikaṭe.
This fragmentary inscription was engraved on a slab found in the ongoing excavations at Chada, an ancient habitation during the Satavahana era. The inscription has been sent to the Epigraphy branch of Archaeological Survey of India in Mysore for further analysis.
The excavation site which is just a metre away from a local stream which flows by its side, is one of the great Buddhist sites in Telangana. There are around 30-40 ancient Buddhist (known) sites in Telangana, and Chada is one of them. It is located around 70-80 km away from Hyderabad.
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