Kakanadabota
| Author:Laxman Burdak, IFS (R) |
Kakanadabota (काकनादबोट) was the old name of Sanchi in Madhya Pradesh.
Origin
Variants
- Kakanadabota (काकनादबोट) (AS, p.161)
- Kâkanâdabôta (काकनादबोट)
- Kakanada-Bot (काकनादबोट)
- Kakanada (काकनाद)
- Kakanaya
Jat clans
Kanakheda near Sanchi
Known for its Sanchi Stupa, it is the location of several Buddhist monuments dating from the 3rd century BC to the 12th CE and is one of the important places of Buddhist Pilprimage. In Mahavamsa the site is referred to as Chetiyagiri, which was visited by Mahinda and his mother Devi. Early votive inscription refer to the place as Kakanaya. In the Gupta period it was termed Kakanada-Bota, and Bots-Shri-Parvat in the 7th century. A small hilltop village, just besides the Sanchi Stupa complex, is still called Kanakheda.[1]
History
Tejram Sharma [2] writes that ....The word Kakanadabota (काकनादबोट) has been mentioned in two Gupta inscriptions - (No. 5, L. 1): Sanchi Stone Inscription of Chandragupta II Gupta Year 93 (A.D. 412); (No.23, L.2) : Sanchi Stone Inscription of the time of Kumaragupta I Gupta Year 131 (=A.D. 450)
2. Kakanadabota (काकनादबोट) (No. 5, L. 1; No.23, L.2) : In both the inscriptions, we find reference to a grant to the Arya Samgha or the Community of the faithful, at the great Vihara, or Buddhist convent of Kakanadabota, 700 for the purpose of feeding mendicants and maintaining lamps.
D.C. Sircar takes 'Kakanadabota' to be the old name of Sanchi. 701 Fleet is of the view that the Kakanadabota convent is the Great Stupa itself. According to him the word Bota is another form of Pota (पोट) which means 'the foundation of a house'. 702 Fleet further writes that the name 'Kakanada' lit. 'the noise of the crow' was the ancient name of Sanchi it self which is proved by its occurrence in two inscriptions in Mauryan characters found at Sanchi. 703
Thus, it is clear that Kakanada was the ancient name of Sanci in the Bhopal State, now Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh, well-known for its Buddhist topes. 704 The word 'bota' is thus a surplus and joined by 'Kakanada' will refer to the great stupa itself. Its form Pota meaning the foundation of a house is untenable bacause the word 'vihara' in that very sense appears in the inscriptions. The word 'bota' has been used here in the sense of an ascetic cult. 705 It is a Prakrit word which has been used here to refer to 'the Buddhist cult'. Thus the relevant expression means 'in the holy great vihara of the Buddhist cult (assembly) at Kakanada'.
Fleet is wrong in translating the word Kakanada to mean 'the noise of the crow'. 706 K.P. Jayaswal's rendering 'the praise of the Kakas' 707 is more to the point. We know of the Kakas, an autonomous community mentioned in the Allahabad Inscription of Samudragupta. 708 In Eastern Malwa we have two ancient place-names connected with the Kakas. One is the hill now called Sanchi hill (the ancient) Kakanada. The other is an ancient village called Kakapura, some 20 miles north of Bhilsa, and full of ancient monuments. 709
700. No. 5, L. 1 : No. 2, L. 2 : काकनादबोट-श्री-महाविहारे...।
701. Select Inscriptions by D. C. Sircar, p. 281, f.n.3.
702. Corpus Inscripionum Indicarum, Vol. III by John Faithful Fleet, p. 31 also see f.n.I.
703. Ibid., p. 31 : (i) काकणाये भगवतो पमण लठि "the measuring staff of (Buddha), the Divine one, at Kakanada". (ii) "सपुरिसस गोतिपुतस काकनाद - पभासनस कोडिन गोतस " : "(the relics) of the virtuous Prabhasana of Kakanada, the Gotiputra, of the Kaundinya gotra".
704. Cf. Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval India by N. L. Dey, p. 83 : Select Inscriptions by D. C. Sircar. p. 280.
705. Cf. Paia-Sadda-Mahannavo (ed.) V. S. Agrawala and Malvania. p. 639 : बोटिय (बोटिक) : दिगम्बर जैन सम्प्रदाय, वि. दिगम्बर जैन सम्प्रदाय का अनुयायी .... "बिडियसिव भूईयो बोडियलिंगस्स होइ उप्पत्ती ...
706. Corpus Inscripionum Indicarum, Vol. III by John Faithful Fleet. p. 31
707. Journal of Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Patna. Vol. XVIII, 1952, Pt. II, p. 212.
708. No. I, L. 22 : Corpus Inscripionum Indicarum, Vol. III by John Faithful Fleet , pp. 8,14.
709. Jayaswal, 'The Kakas... their location" Journal of Bihar and Orissa Research Society, Patna, Vol. XV1IT, 1932, Pt. II, pp. 212-13. P. 212 'Kakapura is situated on a river and a hill opposite the village by the road has two square temples and a few Gupta Sculptures. A large number of pillars and Sati memorials cover the plain in front of the temple hill. Medieval inscriptions are also in evidence. They with the temples testify to the continued importance of the place, from the Gupta to the medieval period.
काकनादबोट
विजयेन्द्र कुमार माथुर[3] ने लेख किया है ...काकनादबोट (AS, p.161): सांची (मध्य प्रदेश) का प्राचीन नाम जो यहाँ से प्राप्त अभिलेखों से ज्ञात होता है (देखें गुप्ता-संवत 93=412-413 ई. का प्रस्तर लेख - फ्लीट गुप्त इन्स्क्रिप्शंस)