Nākappaṭṭiṉam, bronze label

Metadata

Current Version:  draft, 2024-05-09Z

Editor:   Emmanuel Francis.

DHARMA Identifier: INSTamilNadu00344

Summary: Label on a Buddhist bronze.

Hand Description:

Additional Metadata

No metadata were provided in the table for this inscription

Edition

1svasti śrī ddanda

nittaṉ mati-¡ṉ!⟨n⟩āyakar

Apparatus

1 nittaṉ mati° ◇ nittaṉa-mati° R1

Translation by Ramachandran 1954

1Hail! Prosperity!

1The Nāyakar (i.e., Lord Buddha) who was Nittanamati.

Translation by Emmanuel Francis

1Prosperity! Fortune!

1The Lord of/with discernment (mati), the supreme being (nittaṉ).

Commentary

Ramachandran 1954 comments thus: "The word Nittanamati is evidently not to be taken here as a proper name. It may mean "one who had set his mind on poverty (wealthlessness)." The words nittaṉam and mati remind us of their Sanskrit counterparts nirdhana and mati. And the Buddha was certainly a Nirdhanamati having renounced the world."

Ramachandran 1954’s interpretation is not fully convincing as it would be the only attestation of nittaṉam, whereas nittaṉ (from Sanskrit nitya) is found in MTL.↓1

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 TBC. [siglum R1]
Ramachandran, T. N. 2005. The Nāgapaṭṭiṇam and Other Buddhist Bronzes in the Chennai Museum. 2nd edition. Chennai: Government of Tamilnadu.
Page 56, plate V, no. 44. [siglum R2]

Notes

↑1. See MTL, s.v. nittaṉ: "n. 1. The Supreme Being, as eternal; 2. Śiva; 3. Arhat."