Source of the material

Both of the Tibetan inscriptions presented here were found by Alexander Cunningham during his explorations in the nineteenth century. In his book Mahābodhi, Cunningham published a number of records in different languages including Burmese and Chinese.Footnote ² Some of these were illustrated in his plates XXIX and XXX. The number of plates in Mahābodhi is 31 in total, but among the Cunningham papers in the British Museum are pages showing that he had planned further illustrations that were not included in the final publication. A mock-up for plate XXXV is of special note because it illustrates not only the long Burmese inscription discussed at length by Cunningham, but a dedicatory inscription in Tibetan (Figure 3).Footnote ³ This mock-up shows that the Tibetan inscription was recovered at Bodhgayā, a fact not documented by other sources. Among the Cunningham papers there is also a rubbing of a second Tibetan inscription labelled ‘Maha Bodhi’ in Cunningham's hand (Figure 2). Neither of these inscriptions was included in Cunningham's monograph and neither has been noticed or published otherwise.Footnote ⁴

Fig. 3.

Mock-up of plate XXXV for A. C. Cuningham, Mahābodhi, not included in the final publication. British Museum, Asia, 1897,0528,0.26a.

After Cunningham retired from active service in India, he returned to London in 1885. As early as 1857 he had sold some Indian coins to the Museum, but his first major gift was a collection of antiquities in 1887. This included the small finds from Bodhgayā and other sites in north India.Footnote ⁵ In 1892 he donated the residue of his archaeological material, while his coin collection came after his death in 1894.Footnote ⁶ Throughout his time in London, Cunningham was in contact with A. W. Franks, Keeper of British and Medieval Antiquities at the Museum. Franks often acquired material from Cunningham personally, the most notable case being the Oxus Treasure. This came to Franks in 1887.Footnote ⁷ Other material acquired personally by Franks included Cunningham's Indian seals and his notes and photographs of Bodhgayā. The latter included residual material from the production of Mahābodhi. Franks also obtained a copy of the finished book in which he wrote his name; this copy is preserved in the library of the Department of Asia at the Museum. Exactly when the photographs and notes came to Franks is not recorded, but considering they include mock-ups for some of the plates in the book, we can surmise that it was after the publication of Mahābodhi in 1892.

Cunningham's photographs and notes were kept in boxes in the Museum and not closely studied until the second author of this article began to organise and catalogue the departmental archive. While the materials in the archive were once seen as minor supplements to the original antiquities, their importance has grown with time. This is especially true in the case of the Bodhgayā. Already in the nineteenth century the site was drawing the energetic attention of the Burmese and in recent decades Bodhgayā has emerged as an active religious centre.Footnote ⁸ The old photographs document many features that have vanished or been much reworked. Among the things that have disappeared, or are anyway not accessible, are the Tibetan inscriptions. The location of the originals is unknown to the present authors.

Significance and context

The significance of the inscriptions discussed in this article lies in the fact that they document the presence of Tibetans at Bodhgayā in the time of the Pāla kings (the dating is taken up below). We know very well from literary sources that Tibetans came to India to visit holy places and to study Buddhism. Marpa the translator (1012–97) is perhaps the most-celebrated case.Footnote ⁹ Archaeological evidence for these visits is another matter. The inscriptions demonstrate that Tibetans were indeed in India – should we have any doubts in the matter – and that their presence was significant enough to merit permanent additions to the sacred precinct at Bodhgayā. To put the matter another way and in ethno-archaeological terms, those who stay at Bodhgayā for extended periods will be aware that many people visit during the year, that assemblies are organised on festival days and that sumptuous offerings are sometimes arranged for such events (Figure 4). However elaborate these things may be, little or nothing remains after the festivals are over. An apposite Tibetan case in this context is the pilgrimage of Ye shes dbang po who is reported to have come to Bodhgayā in the eighth century. His visit is briefly noted in the eleventh-century version of the dBa’ bzhed (folio 5v, lines 3–5):Footnote ¹⁰

Worship performed by visitors is therefore one thing, the making of buildings, sculptures and inscriptions yet another. Monumental additions constitute a different register of activity requiring visitors not only to have significant resources but sufficient time and contacts for their monuments to be sanctioned by the authorities and installed on the site.

Fig. 4.

Tibetan offerings placed on the Jewel Walk at Bodhgayā on the occasion of the festival marking the 2550^th anniversary of the Buddha's enlightenment in 2006.

Our Tibetan records (given here as inscription A and B) mention particular donors but provide no further details. To understand the personal circumstances that surrounded donations to Bodhgayā, we can turn to a Chinese inscription documenting the erection of a shrine to the north of the Bodhi tree. The inscription was reproduced in the 1881 volume of this journal, making re-illustration here unnecessary.Footnote ¹¹ The date corresponds to 1021 CE and the text opens as follows:Footnote ¹²

This inscription was one of three Chinese records found by Cunningham in the Mahābodhi precinct.Footnote ¹³ They document a group of Chinese monks in India during the second decade of the eleventh century, that is, during the reign of the Indian king Mahīpāla (c. 995–1043). Slightly later in Mahīpāla's reign is a Chinese inscription of 1033 recording the construction of a shrine by another monk at the request of the Song emperor Renzong (1022–63). This inscription, not illustrated hitherto, is shown here in figure 5.Footnote ¹⁴ Of immediate interest for the present study in this record is the fact that this documents the building of a shrine by a monk named Huaiwen “beside the bodhimaṇḍa, the diamond throne”. So although the tablet was found by Cunningham in the walls of the Mahant's residence (some distance to the east of the temple), it was certainly set up in the Mahābodhi precinct like the other Chinese records. Also found in the Mahant's residence is the most important inscription of the period, illustrated here in the lower part of Figure 3. This tells of a series of restoration campaigns by the Burmese at Bodhgayā culminating in a mission that completed repairs to the Mahābodhi in 1298.Footnote ¹⁵ It seems likely that this work left the temple largely as it appears in early photographs, i.e. before the wholesale restoration by the British. A second and much shorter Burmese inscription on a copper-gilt umbrella was excavated to the west of the temple. It is dated 1293–94.Footnote ¹⁶

Fig. 5.

Chinese inscription of the Song emperor Renzong from Bodhgayā. British Museum, Asia 1897,0528.0.30

These inscriptions are important because they show that additions to Bodhgayā by foreign visitors were located close to the Mahābodhi temple and that they involved, in the Burmese case, work on the building itself. So although the find-spot of the Tibetan inscriptions is not recorded, it seems very likely that they were originally set up near to the Bodhi tree. As far as the date is concerned, the Tibetan epigraphs furnish no direct evidence. The monk named in Inscription A is not known from any other source. Inscription B mentions a group of lay-followers but does not give any names. This absence of data makes dating difficult, the problem being exacerbated by the fact that the records, especially Inscription A, appear to have been engraved in India by people who did not know Tibetan. This makes palaeographic comparisons basically meaningless. Nevertheless, the overall history of Bodhgayā in medieval times suggests the inscriptions probably pre-date the decline of Buddhism that coincided rise of the Tughluq dynasty in the fourteenth century.Footnote ¹⁷ An early date in the Tibetan dynastic period, that is, in the eighth or ninth century, is ruled out by the absence of old letter forms such as reversed vowels and the use of the visarga as a punctuation mark.Footnote ¹⁸ Of course these features appear frequently in later times, but the complete absence of reversed vowels tends to give the inscriptions a later appearance. Moreover, Inscription A is metrical, suggesting a post-dynastic chronological horizon. So the inscriptions probably date after the decline of the Tibetan empire in the mid-ninth century but before the rise of the Tughluqs in the fourteenth century. In this period of four hundred and fifty years, the most likely time is the eleventh to thirteenth century. As just noted, Burmese and Chinese pilgrims made important donations at this time, some at the behest of foreign potentates. This period was also a time when Buddhist missions travelled from Tibet to India.

Inscription A

This inscription is written in three lines (Figure 1). It is registered in the British Museum under the number 1897,0528,0.26b. The context of the record is not given by Cunningham but it seems likely from the layout that it was incised on the pedestal of an image. This, in addition to the site itself, explains why the Buddha is understood but not named directly in the text. The script looks unusual, indeed just what we might expect of a Tibetan record made in India by somebody with no knowledge of Tibetan. In addition to a number of letters with aberrant shapes, there are superfluous letters and vowel marks. The palaeography is therefore difficult to judge chronologically, but for the reasons noted above it can be placed between the mid-ninth and early fourteenth century. If nothing else, this inscription shows the difficulties a Tibetan could expect from a medieval engraver in India. A contrast can be drawn with the Chinese record illustrated here in Figure 5. While the Tibetan inscription seems to have been composed and prepared on the spot at Bodhgayā, the Chinese record looks as if it was carefully copied from a scroll carried from China expressly for the purpose. And we know from examples in China proper that monks themselves cut inscriptions of Buddhist texts.

The monk's name in the Tibetan inscription is hal pa skyid pa. This is a peculiar name and while a satirical title is not impossible, it is more likely that hal is an abbreviation for ha la ha la, an esoteric name for Mañjuśrī or Mañjughoṣa (Tib. ‘jam dpal, ‘jam dbyangs).Footnote ¹⁹ The name might be rendered in Sanskrit as Guhyamañjughoṣakṣema. The names of some Tibetans who travelled to India are known, for example Chag dgra bcom (1153–1216) and Chos rje dpal (1197–1263/4). Both visited Bodhgayā and details of their experiences at the Mahābodhi are recorded in the Blue Annals and the Biography of Dharmasvāmin.Footnote ²⁰ For the moment, however, Ban de hal pa skyid pa, under that name or assorted synonyms, has eluded identification. The text is metrical, with nine syllables in each line.

Inscription B

This inscription is written in three lines (Figure 2). It is registered in the British Museum under the number 1897,0528,0.35. The context of the inscription is not recorded, but the wording “it was commissioned” (bzhengs su gsol ba) is often encountered in dedications. The shape and size suggest the inscription was put on a paving stone like a number of medieval votive inscriptions, some of them still in the floor of the Mahābodhi temple. The purpose of the inscription is to record a dedication by six lay followers (upāsaka): dge bsnyen drug pas. This shows that a group of six people came from Tibet and made this as a collective offering. They are qualified by the word skrag. Judging from practices that are still current among Tibetans, this refers to a constellation and indicates that the six individuals undertook a pilgrimage to Bodhgayā to redress the influence of an inauspicious period in their lives.