Nākappaṭṭiṉam, bronze label

Metadata

Current Version:  draft, 2024-05-09Z

Editor:   Emmanuel Francis.

DHARMA Identifier: INSTamilNadu00373

Summary: Label on a Buddhist bronze.

Hand Description:

Additional Metadata

No metadata were provided in the table for this inscription

Edition

1tiru-v-uṭai(y)ār Ammai A-
2kaḷaṅka-⟨⟨p⟩⟩-perumāḷ

Translation by Ramachandran 1954

1-2The Great Being Akaḷaṅka, who is both mother and father of the world.

Translation by Emmanuel Francis

1-2The Lord (perumāḷ) Akaḷaṅka↓1, the mother / the beauty. (ammai), the glorious Lord / the Lord of Fortune.

Commentary

Ramachandran 1954 comments thus: "Akalaṅka is the Buddha. The concept that he is both father and mother is worth comparing with Kālidāsa’s jagataḥ pitarau in the Raghuvaṃśa. This inscription is great importance to our study of the Buddhism that flourished in Nākappaṭṭiṉam or South India in about the 14th and 15th centuries A.D. The record is a praise of the Buddha, as Akalaṅka, father and mother of the world. The image according to the donor’s devotion and prayer stands for the Buddha."

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.
Pages 61–62, plate VI, no. 73. [siglum R2]

Notes

↑1. Literally: "the Stainless One," a name of the Buddha.