बोधगया, बिहार. Photograph of Chinese Inscription.

The chronological data is provided in the third line from the left [時大宋天禧年歲次壬戌酉己月標記 ....]. Anderson, Catalogue and Handbook of the Archaeological Collections in the Indian Museum, Part II (Calcutta, 1880), pp. 55-56 (no. BG 122) misidentifies the two figures of Mārīcī and the sows below, and reports that the tablet was "found in the summer of 1880, under 12 feet of rubbish surrounding the Great Temple," a statement echoed in S. Beal, "Two Chinese-Buddhist Inscriptions Found at Buddha Gayâ." Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 13, no. 4 (1881): 552-72. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25196897. He summarises the text and gives an illustration, and a 'corrected' Chinese transcription in printed form. Beal gives us only 天禧 tianxi (his Tien hi) in his discussion of the date. The content of the JRAS article is repeated in S. Beal, "Buddhist Pilgrims from China to India," Indian Antiquary 10 (1881): 192-197. Slightly later, Cunningham, Mahabodhi (1892): 68 (Chinese inscription, no. 1) reports this inscription was found "under the north face of the northern Samādh centotaph of a Mahant." He provides a translation from H. A. Giles, who gives only 壬戌 renxu (his Jen hsu, in his discussion of the date, see Mahabodhi, pp. 69-71).