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Highlights from Fieldwork in Maharashtra (2026)

Between mid-January and mid-February, two members of the DHARMA Project (Annette Schmiedchen and Amandine Wattelier-Bricout) travelled to India to continue documenting inscriptions and collecting the metadata needed to complete the DHARMA database.

During the first part of our field trip, we visited the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya in Mumbai in order to obtain photographs and to document several inscriptions preserved there. We received a warm welcome and invaluable assistance from the curator, Dr. Aparna Bhogal. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya Museum’s collection also contains several stone inscriptions that are particularly interesting for the BESTOW project. These are stelae depicting an iconographic curse commonly known as ‘gadhehal’ in Maharashtra, also referred to as the ‘donkey-and-woman motif’ or ‘ass-curse’.

Ranvad Stone Inscription of Someśvaram Śaka year 1181 preserved in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Mumbai), edited by Mirashi (1977:173-75). (credit photo: A. Schmiedchen)

Ranvad Stone Inscription of Someśvaram Śaka year 1181 preserved in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Mumbai), edited by Mirashi (1977:173-75). (credit photo: A. Schmiedchen)

 

This type of figurative representation of a curse emerged in northern India around the eleventh century. In the corpus of Śilāhāra inscriptions edited by Mirashi (1977), twelve stelae feature this type of iconography. However, the texts inscribed on these stelae do not always quote imprecation stanzas: only five end with an ‘usual’ stanza and in three cases, there is an explicit mention of the ass-curse, either in verse or prose.1 The Bassein Stone Inscription of Mallikārjuna, Śaka year 1083 (1162AD) (Mirashi 1977, 153) does not quote the usual stanzas but contains a prose sentence about the ass-curse (see figure below). While there are many examples of this iconography and curse in Maharashtra, it should be noted that there are also numerous examples from the same period in Bihar and Bangladesh (for examples, see Furui 2013, 398–99).

Bassein Stone Inscription of Mallikārjuna, Śaka 1083 (1162AD) preserved at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Mumbai), edited by Mirashi (1977: 153-56). (credit photo: A. Schmiedchen).

Bassein Stone Inscription of Mallikārjuna, Śaka 1083 (1162AD) preserved at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Mumbai), edited by Mirashi (1977: 153-56). (credit photo: A. Schmiedchen).

While in Mumbai, we also had the opportunity to document and read inscriptions on the walls of the Kanheri caves, which allowed us to observe the use of the term ‘vihāra’ in this location.2

Cave 12 (entrance), Kanheri (credit photo: A. Schmiedchen): the inscription engraved on the architrave records certain grants of money for the worship of the Bhagavat, the repairs of the vihāra, the cloths of the monks and the purchase of books (Gokhale 1991, Inscription 22: 71-72)

Cave 12 (entrance), Kanheri (credit photo: A. Schmiedchen). The inscription engraved on the architrave records certain grants of money for the worship of the Bhagavat, the repairs of the vihāra, the cloths of the monks and the purchase of books (Gokhale 1991, Inscription 22: 71-72)

Then we travelled to Pune, where we visited several important and famous institutions. Our visit to the Bhārata Itihāsa Saṁśodhaka Maṇḍala enabled us to document certain copper plates preserved there. The museum also exhibits several examples of stelae bearing an ass-curse.

Documentation of a copper-plate in the Bhārata Itihāsa Saṁśodhaka Maṇḍala, Pune (credit photo A. Wattelier-Bricout).

Documentation of a copper-plate in the Bhārata Itihāsa Saṁśodhaka Maṇḍala, Pune (credit photo A. Wattelier-Bricout).

In Pune, we spent several days working alongside researchers from the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, including Drs Shreenand L. Bapat and Amruta Natu. We would like to thank all of them warmly for their hospitality, assistance, and for the time they devoted to us. Thanks to them, Amandine Wattelier-Bricout was able to access valuable manuscripts for her research on protective rituals.

Manuscript of the Brahmottarakhaṇḍa belonging to the Skandapurāṇa preserved at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (credit photo A. Wattelier-Bricout).

Manuscript of the Brahmottarakhaṇḍa belonging to the Skandapurāṇa preserved at the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (credit photo A. Wattelier-Bricout).

During our stay in Pune, Annette Schmiedchen was invited to deliver a lecture entitled ‘Religious Support and Patronage by Royal Women in the Early Medieval Deccan’ as part of the P. K. Gode Memorial Lecture Series. This was followed by a lively question-and-answer session.

Sixteenth P.K.Gode Memorial Lecture by A. Schmiedchen (credit photo. A. Wattelier-Bricout)

Sixteenth P.K.Gode Memorial Lecture by A. Schmiedchen (credit photo. A. Wattelier-Bricout)

Another important step in Pune was our visit to the Deccan College, where we received a warm welcome from Dr Shilpa Sumant and Dr Bhav Sharma. This gave us the opportunity to discover the extraordinary work of the entire Sanskrit Dictionary Project team. The first volumes of the dictionary are now available online: https://koshashri-dc.ac.in/search/ . The dictionary’s accessibility undoubtedly makes it a valuable tool for researchers.

The final part of our trip was spent in Calcutta. The main purpose of this visit was to meet a collector and document the copper plates in his possession.

 

Bibliography

Gokhale, Shobhana. 1991. Kanheri Inscriptions. Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute.

Mirashi, Vasudev Vishnu. 1977. Inscriptions of the Śilāhāras. Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum 6. Archaelogical Survey of India.

Schmiedchen, Annette. 2025. « Vihāra, Mahāvihāra, Vihāramaṇḍala: The Terminology for Buddhist Monasteries and Nunneries in Sanskrit Epigraphy from Late Antiquity to the Early Medieval Period ». In Studies on Buddhist Monastic Cultures, édité par Petra Kieffer-Pülz, Taiken Kyuma, et Satoshi Ogura. Asien- Und Afrika-Studien Der Humboldt-Universität Zu Berlin. Harrassowitz https://hal.science/hal-05396595v1.

Sircar, Dines Chandra. 1965. « Stanzas on Bhūmi-Dāna Quoted in Raja-Śāsanas, Appendix II ». In Indian Epigraphy. Motilal Banarsidass.

 

  1. The stanzas quoted are among those that are very popular: Chaudharapāḍā Stone Inscription of Keśideva II, Śaka year 1161 (1239 AD) (Mirashi 1977, 171) quotes BEst_0055 ; Parel Stone Inscription of Aparāditya II, Śaka year 1108 (1186 AD) (Mirashi 1977, 162‑63) quotes a variation of BEst_0132 and BEst_0137; Bristish Museum Stone Inscription of the Reign of Haripāladeva, Śaka year 1076 (1154 AD) (Mirashi 1977, 150) and Nandui Stone Inscription of Aparāditya II, Śaka year 1119 (1197 AD) (Mirashi 1977, 281) both quote BEst_0023, while Loṇād Stone Inscription of Aparāditya II, Śaka 1106 (1184 AD) (Mirashi 1977, 156) partially quotes it. Interestingly, three of these stelae (Parel Stone Inscription of Aparāditya II, Nandui Stone Inscription of Aparāditya II and Loṇād Stone Inscription of Aparāditya II) add to usual stanzas a prose sentence mentioning the ass-curse. For further information on the benedictory and imprecatory stanzas, see (Sircar 1965) and also the page dedicated to the BESTOW project and the list currently being compiled here: https://dharmalekha.info/bestow . []
  2. On this subject, see the recent publication by Annette Schmiedchen. Vihāra, mahāvihāra, vihāramaṇḍala: The Terminology for Buddhist Monasteries and Nunneries in Indian Epigraphical Sources from Late Antiquity to the Early Medieval Period. Annette Schmiedchen; Petra Kieffer-Pülz; Taiken Kyuma. Studies on Buddhist Monastic Cultures. German-Japanese Collaboration, 68, Harrassowitz Verlag, pp.57-104, 2025, Asien- und Afrikastudien der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 978-3-447-12424-9. 10.13173/9783447124249.057. hal-05396595https://hal.science/hal-05396595v1 []
Amandine Wattelier-Bricout
Amandine Wattelier-Bricout
Docteur en études indiennes - Ambassadrice HAL

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OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Amandine Wattelier-Bricout (March 10, 2026). Highlights from Fieldwork in Maharashtra (2026). DHARMA project ERC n° 809994. Retrieved May 20, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/15ug7


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