Nākappaṭṭiṉam, bronze label

Metadata

Current Version:  draft, 2024-05-09Z

Editor:   Emmanuel Francis.

DHARMA Identifier: INSTamilNadu00302

Summary: Label on a Buddhist bronze.

Hand Description:

Additional Metadata

No metadata were provided in the table for this inscription

Edition

1tiru-Araṅka-nāyakar

Translation by Ramachandran 1954

1The Nāyaka (Buddha), the lord of Buddhist forum of theological debate.↓1

Translation by Emmanuel Francis

1The glorious Lord [of] the stage (araṅkam↓2).

Commentary

Ramachandran 1954’s suggestion that the Buddha is here "the lord of Buddhist forum of theological debate" with reference to the Maturai caṅkappalakai↓3 appears far-fetched. It seems that the Buddha is presented here as a rival of Viṣṇu, known as Raṅganātha, "the Lord of the stage," in his famous temple on the Śrīraṅga island at Trichy.

See Tamil Nadu 381.

Bibliography

Edited in Ramachandran 1954, with a facsimile.

Edited and translated here by Emmanuel Francis (2024), based on Ramachandran 1954 and the facsimile therein.

Primary

Ramachandran, T. N. 1954. The Nāgapaṭṭiṇam and Other Buddhist Bronzes in the Chennai Museum. Madras: Government of Madras.
TBC, plate XIV, no. 2. [siglum R1]
Ramachandran, T. N. 2005. The Nāgapaṭṭiṇam and Other Buddhist Bronzes in the Chennai Museum. 2nd edition. Chennai: Government of Tamilnadu.
Page 106, pages III, no. 2. [siglum R2]

Notes

↑1. Cf. Madurai caṅkappalakai.
↑2. That is, Sanskrit raṅga.
↑3. See MTL, s.v. caṅkappalakai: "Miraculous seat capable of accommodating only deserving scholars, believed to have been granted by Śiva at Madurai to the Sangam poets."