Bodhisiri's inscription at Nagarjunakonda (inscription F)

Far south of Kalinga is a place called Nagarjunakonda, in Andhra Pradesh. A woman named Bodhisiri paid to build a Buddhist shrine there. Workers carved her message into the shrine floor. Scholars think this happened about 1,800 years ago [Epigraphia Indica, n.d., p.14].

Bodhisiri’s words list far-off lands. Monks from Sri Lanka had traveled and taught there. The list names Kashmir, China, and a place called Tosali. Tosali is the same Kalinga town named in Ashoka’s edicts at Dhauli [Epigraphia Indica, n.d., p.7].

Historians agree this Tosali is the one in Kalinga. That means Kalinga was part of a wide Buddhist world. It reached from northwest India all the way to Sri Lanka and China [Kulke, 1998, p.96].

Scholars care about this message because it names Kalinga from far away. One word right after it is badly worn. A scholar guessed it might read “Palura,” a port named by the Greek writer Ptolemy. He called this only a guess, not a real reading [Epigraphia Indica, n.d., p.8].

For scholars

The worn word comes right after “Damila,” meaning Tamil lands. The scholar who first read it said “Palura” was a tempting guess. But he never said he could actually read those letters [Epigraphia Indica, n.d., p.8].

The same scholar also wondered about a place called Dosarene, named in an old Greek sailing guide. He thought it might link to Tosali. That link is only his own idea. No one has ever found a real port called Dosarene [Epigraphia Indica, n.d., p.8].

The date of this message comes from comparing letter shapes to other old writing. The scholar who used this method called it “probably right,” not certain [Epigraphia Indica, n.d., p.6].