INBG00040 Pataliputra Kharosthi inscription on Mahabodhi plaque

The tower temple depicted on the plaque is the Mahābodhi temple at Bodhgayā, which was probably built in the Gupta period (4th-6th century CE). A Buddha in abhayamudrā is illustrated inside the temple, probably portraying the Buddha image with an inscription dated to 383 CE (see INBG00018 and OBBG00018). However, the inscription on the Mahābodhi plaque is in Kharoṣṭhī, a script that fell into disuse in northern India in the 3rd century CE. This inconsistence between dates has had some scholars argue that the tower temple on the plaque does not represent the Mahābodhi temple (see Bibliography).

“Now it is of interest to note that the Kauthumas are never mentioned in the Mahābhārata but they were known to Pāṇini who hailed from north/western India, where the Kharoṣṭhī alphabet had its Indian home. According to the sixth chapter of the third book of the Viṣṇupurāṇa, the pupils of Kauśalya and Pauṣyiñji were known as the northern (udīcya) sāmagas and Kauthumi, from whom the Kauthumas take their name, was a pupil of Pauṣyiñji. I think that we have here a further indication which tends to show that the so-called Bodh-Gaya plaque was left in ancient Pāṭaliputra by a Buddhist pilgrim from the North-West, an inhabitant of the country where Kharośṭhī was the usual script.” (Know 1926, p. 132).