Stela at Ta Keo Museum (K. 1235), 549 Śaka

Metadata

Current Version:  draft, 2023-11-08Z

Editor:   Dominic Goodall.

DHARMA Identifier: INSCIK01235

Hand Description:

According to Dominic Goodall (2019: page 32), the stela "bears 10 lines in Sanskrit written in sober but elegant letters, neatly engraved, that are typical of the seventh century. I draw the attention of readers to two characteristics to note. The engraver writes the retroflex ṇ in both the older and the “newer” seventh-century fashion (lines 4, 5, 8, 9 and 10), in other words both with and without the central vertical bar, and what is elsewhere sometimes a loop in the lower left part of the dental n is here closed."

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Additional Metadata

No metadata were provided in the table for this inscription

Edition

Apparatus

¹ aśeṣaṁ • It is probably an abrasion of the stone that leads one at first blush to read ageṣaṁ.
³ [tap](taru)gmam ivātyarttha • Before rugmam, we can see the lower part of what could be a ligature t: it would therefore be possible to restore [tap](taru)gmam.
⁷ [ẖ kr̥ta]vedinām· • For this restitution, see notes to the translation. The syllables in square brackets here are totally obliterated by damage to the stone.
¹⁰ [kr̥te] pu(ṇ)y(ā)dhik[āre smi] • The restored portions are restituted with the help of stanza XV of K. 604, which is almost identical to the present stanza. The present stanza confirms in turn that it is indeed puṇyādhikāre that one must read in K. 604, XVa!

Translation by Goodall 2019

[May He] whose eight forms support the entire universe, the Lord, who possesses the power to accord the [desired] gift of sovereignty, [protect you].

[There was once] a king whose edicts were borne upon the heads of all [other] kings, the glorious Īśānavarman, the sole receptacle of glories,

who, rich in glory, shone intensely in the lineage of kings whose glories filled the universe, just as [molten] gold [shines].

whose kingdom (avanimaṇḍalam), over which he reigned fully (pratapatas samyag), and which extended up to the boundaries that are the three oceans, was adorned with a single parasol.

That king drew towards himself not only the string (guṇaḥ) of his great bow, but also the famous unequalled virtue (guṇaḥ) of the king-sage Dilīpa.

Having seen this beautiful king, it seems to me, Madana had to abandon the pride that had taken root in him for thinking “Perfection of beauty resides only in me”.

By this king of kings, a servant, the first among those who are conscious of what is done for them, has been employed to attend to all his duties.

[This same servant] was the master named Vidyāviśeṣa, the favorite of his own master, inscribed (likhitaḥ) at the head [of the list] of poets and philosophers who have conquered the śāstras.

In the śaka year counted by the (9) orifices [of the body], the (4) oceans and the (5) arrows [of the god of love], this causeway, characterised by round [holes] that give two passage-ways [for water to escape], was built by him.

Having accomplished this [deed] which gives right to merit, the same king appointed this founder as governor of Tamandarapura.

Commentary

According to Dominic Goodall (2019: page 32), each line contains a stanza in the most common Sanskrit metre, anuṣṭubh, each verse-quarter (pāda) of which is separated from the next by a small space on the stone, giving the effect of a “page-layout” in four columns of text, a feature common enough in Cambodian inscriptions but unusual in the Indian subcontinent ().

Bibliography

Edited by Dominic Goodall (2019: pages 32–40) with an English translation.

Primary