Donation of animals and people to Saṅgha by king of Canāśa (K. 400A)

Metadata

Current Version:  draft, 2023-11-08Z

Editors:   Dominic Goodall and Diwakar Acharya.

DHARMA Identifier: INSCIK00400a

Summary: In one sragdhara stanza, this inscription records the gift of buffalos, cows, slaves and possibly elephants to the saṅgha by the king of Canāśa .

Hand Description:

The lettering is fairly typical of seventh-century Khmer epigraphs, but the long descending strokes and the jihvāmūlīya make it seem older still. The jihvamuliya is particularly large and pronounced, having the form of a large circle containing a cross, raised above the consonant that it precedes.

Additional Metadata

No metadata were provided in the table for this inscription

Edition

Apparatus

^1a[lambasta]nyo • Cœdès prints: - - t . nye
^1bstanabharaguravaḫ • Cœdès prints: stanabharaguravat+
^1c°saṁkhy¸ (d)[v]i[pānāṁ] • Cœdès prints: °saṁkhya ~ - -
^1ddattās • Cœdès prints: dattas

Translation by Dominic Goodall

^↓1

Twenty female buffalos with pendant udders (lambastanyaḥ) and having baby calves, and fifty milch cows, heavy with the burden of their udders, followed by their well-nourished calves, ten female and male slaves, happy in their minds, and four elephants were given to the [Buddhist] community by the king of Canāśa, whose mind was fixed upon enlightenment.

Translation into French by Cœdès 1937-1966

Vingt bufflesses au corps large et replet, avec leurs bufflons, cinquante vaches alourdies par le poids de leurs mamelles avec leurs veaux bien gras, dix esclaves des deux sexes à l’esprit joyeux....... au nombre de quatre ont été donnés à la Communeauté par le souverain de Çri Canāça, ayant en vue l’Illumination.

Commentary

Instead of lambastanyo one could equally substitute some similar feminine plural bahuvrīhi, such as kuṇḍastanyaḥ or bṛhatstanyaḥ. Instead of Cœdès’ conjecture bbāla[vatsāḥ], one might also conjecture bbāla[vatyaḥ]. The masculine plural °guravaḫ, where we require a feminine, is perhaps a case of metrical considerations trumping grammatical ones. Cœdès appears to read °guravatḫ, but this is presumably just a typesetting error. The suppletion (d)[v]i[pānāṁ] is the suggestion of Diwakar Acharya.

Bibliography

First edited by Cœdès, along with a later inscription inscribed on the same stone that we shall call K. 400B, with translation into French and commentary (1937-1966). Re-edited here from EFEO estampage n. 1366 by Dominic Goodall and Diwakar Acharya.

Primary

Secondary

Notes

↑1. Note that this English translation follows an interpretation different to that of Cœdès, since it takes into account some improvements to the edition.