Current Version: draft, 2024-04-22Z
Editor: Emmanuel Francis.
DHARMA Identifier: INSPallava00249
Summary: Foundation of the Śrī-Śikhari-Pallaveśvara, at Siṅhapura, by Candrāditya
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2 (nāthe)na ◇ nā(the)na VVA
4 dhāma ◇ dhā(ma) VVA
This home of Śiva named Śrī-śikhari-pallaveśvaram, was caused to be made at Siṁhapura (Ciṅkavaram) by king Candrāditya who was a sarvanātha.
Text standardised according to DHARMA TG and EG.
Le roi Candrāditya, maître de l’univers, fit construire
Cette demeure de Śiva, appelée Śrī-Śikhari-Pallaveśvara, à Siṁhapura (siṅhapure).
2 The founder Candrāditya has not been identified with certainty. He could be a Pallava prince, not known from other sources. According to Srinivasan 1964: page 118 he might be a Cāḷukya prince, contemporary of the Pallava king Narasiṁhavarman II Māmalla, who was the son of Pulakeśin and is known from records of his queen Vijayamahādevī. Srinivasan 1964 notes that Vijayamahādevī is known as Pōtti, the feminine of Pōttaṉ, that is, Pallava, and suggests that she was a Pallava princess. This would explain how her husband, a Cāḷukya prince, could have founded a rock-cut cave in the Pallava realm. However, Nagaswamy 1982: page 188 considers that the cave was founded by a Pallava king, as the name Pallava is included in the name of the foundation and as Pallava kings had birudas ending with the term āditya.
3 The name Śrī-Śikhari-Pallaveśvara might be translated as “The glorious [temple] of the Lord of the Pallava Śikharin." Śikharin (literally “peaked” or “mountain”) appears to be the biruda (gloryfying soubriquet) of an unidentified Pallava king, meaning “eminent." This is its only attestattion. Alternatively, one could also translated “The glorious [temple] of the Lord of the Pallava [founded by] Śikharin." In that case Śikharin would be a biruda of the founder Candrāditya."
4 The placename Siṁhapura (“The city of the lion”) is reflected in that of the nearby village Ciṅkavaram.
First tentatively edited and translated into French and into English by Jouveau-Dubreuil 1916–1917 and Jouveau-Dubreuil 1916 with facsimile; edited by Venkatasubba Ayyar 1943 with facsimile (SII 12, no. 115; text and summary in Mahalingam 1988 (IP no. 249); edited and translated into French by Brocquet 1997 (B no. 68); re-edited here for DHARMA (ERC n° 809994) by Sylvain Brocquet & Emmanuel Francis (2020), based on facsimile published in Venkatasubba Ayyar 1943 and photographs (2008).