Doorjamb inscription from Tek Chha village, Kompong Cham province (K. 1525)

Metadata

Current Version:  draft, 2023-11-08Z

Editors:   Chloé Chollet and Dominic Goodall.

DHARMA Identifier: INSCIK01525

Hand Description:

Angkorian script, typical of the second half of the 10th century or even the 11th century CE.

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Additional Metadata

No metadata were provided in the table for this inscription

Edition

Translation by Chloé Chollet

[He gave] the lands in the portion (bhāge) [...] large tank [...], with spittoons, tin, gold (rai), grains, ewers (kuntikā), accompanied by the honorarium [to the priest] (sa-dakṣiṇāḥ);

the lands in the portion of the pond [named] Paśān, of the Ramya village, accompanied by herdsmen (gopaka) and spittoons, with rings, horn handles, silver, gold, tin, grains;

the lands in the Kumāracandra portion, with cattle, fabrics and herds of goats (or: and goats), with ewers, grains, gold, silver; with tin, whose [respective weights] consist of three tulā, etc.;

objects for worship and the four types of oil, silver (rājatān), silver or golden necklaces, male and female slaves, cauldrons etc., spittoons, accompanied by water pots;

He granted a droṇa of husked rice to the illustrious Jalāṅgeśvara on the New Year’s Day festivities (saṁkrānte), and for each (sadā?) day two pada of that (tat) to the two-cubits long liṅga [as well as] to Gaṇeśa (vighneśe).

He set (dadhe) the boundaries of all the portions of land by means of boundary markers-sīmā; and also (tu), he installed (dadhe) in the portions of [these lands] (tāsāṁ) that which was prepared for Śiva, [namely] grains etc.

What is allotted to the hotar [consists of female] slaves of the god (vraḥ) [namely] tai Kansān, tai ’Gat, tai Trasul, tai Joṅ; male slaves, [namely] si Kaṁvit, si Thkal, si Panlas, si Chke, si Vās, si Kaṁvau, [all of whom] are accompanied by land.

He who is tapasvin, [named] Phalapriya, priest, teacher, gave all this to the two-cubits long liṅga on the mountain (= temple?) [named] Snaṅpurī, in the village of Kantāl.

All the [aforementioned] slaves are not controled by the personnel of the Lord Mukhendra; they are controled by the new (navaiḥ) masters of the mountain (or temple?) [and] they are protected by the lineage [of Phalapriya?].

Those who destroy what has been founded, by whom the order is transgress, they will go forever, in this existence and the next (amutreha), into the hells of torment (yātanā-narakān).

Those who keep developing (vivarddhante) what has been founded, [and] who make sure that the order is carried out (kārita-śāsanam yair), these men will attain an abundant [and] optimal condition (gatim) for this existence and the next.

Translation into French by Chloé Chollet

[Il a donné]^↓1 des terres dans la portion (bhāge) [...] grand réservoir [...], avec des crachoirs, de l’étain, de l’or (rai), des céréales, des aiguières (kuntikā) , accompagnées par les honoraires [au prêtre] (sa-dakṣiṇāḥ) ;

les terres dans la portion du bassin [nommé] Paśān, du village de Ramya, accompagnées de bouviers (gopaka) et de crachoirs, avec des bagues (aṅguli)^↓2, des manches en corne (toṅ sneṅ)), de l’argent, de l’or, de l’étain, des céréales ;

les terres dans la portion de Kumāracandra, avec des bovidés, des étoffes et des troupeaux de chèvres (ou : et des chèvres), avec des aiguières, des céréales, de l’or, de l’argent ; avec de l’étain, dont [les poids respectifs] sont de trois tulā, etc. ;

des objets pour le culte (kriyārccana)^↓3 et les quatre types d’huile (catus-snehān), de l’argent (rājatān), des colliers en argent ou en or, des esclaves masculins et féminins, des chaudrons etc., des crachoirs, accompagnés de pots à eau.

Il a octroyé un droṇa de riz décortiqué à l’illustre Jalāṅgeśvara lors des festivités du jour de l’an (saṁkrānte), et pour chaque (sadā ?) jour deux pada de cela (tat) au liṅga long de deux coudées [ainsi qu’]au Gaṇeśa (vighneśe).

Il a fixé (dadhe) les limites de toutes les portions de terres grâce à des bornes-sīmā ; et aussi (tu), il a installé (dadhe) dans les portions de [ces terres] (tāsāṁ) ce qui a été préparé pour Śiva, [à savoir] les céréales etc.

Ce qui est attribué au hotar [consiste en] des esclaves [féminines] du dieu (vraḥ) [à savoir] tai Kansān, tai ’Gat, tai Trasul, tai Joṅ ; des esclaves [masculins, à savoir] si Kaṁvit, si Thkal, si Panlas, si Chke, si Vās, si Kaṁvau, [le tout] accompagné de terres.

Celui qui est tapasvin, [nommé] Phalapriya, sacrificateur, professeur, a donné tout cela au liṅga long de deux mains sur la montagne (= le temple ?) [nommée] Snaṅpurī, dans le village de Kantāl.

Tous les esclaves [sus-mentionnés] ne sont pas envoyés par les membres du personnel du seigneur Mukhendra ; ils sont envoyés par les nouveaux (navaiḥ) maîtres de la montagne (ou du temple ?) [et] ils sont protégés par la lignée [de Phalapriya ?].

Ceux qui détruisent ce qui a été fondé, ou s’ils transgressent l’ordre, alors ils iront pour toujours, pour cette existence et les autres à venir (amutreha), dans les enfers de tourmente (yātanā-narakān)^↓4.

Ceux qui font prospérer (vivarddhante) ce qui a été fondé, [et] qui font en sorte que l’ordre soit appliqué (kārita-śāsanam yair), ces hommes respectables et éminents atteindront une condition prospère (gatim) pour cette existence et les autres à venir.

Trois [exemplaires ?] du pādi ? de la Kāśikā, du Harṣacarita (?), du Vaiśeṣikha[sūtra] ? ; trois [exemplaires ?] du Pārameśvara, de la Nyāyā, du Rāmāyaṇa, avec le Mahābhārata.

Commentary

The composition of the text is very interesting since the Sanskrit stanzas have numerous Old Khmer terms. The integration of the latter, however, lends the whole a sometimes awkward syntax and disorganised appearance. The scribe uses various stratagems to integrate Old Khmer into Sanskrit and to fill in the different pādas to prevent them from being hyper- or hypometric. For instance, we often note at the heart of a compound the element sa-, normally used at the beginning of bahuvrīhi, or the element -ādi. Old Khmer words have also been shortened, and others even adapted to the rules of sandhi (such as padigas-sa, padigaḥ being the common form in Old Khmer). In addition to these syntactical particularities, the distribution of the stanzas is sometimes surprising. The last one, engraved after the imprecatory stanzas, simply evokes numerous works of Sanskrit literature, without fitting into the continuity of the text and without presenting a verb that would structure the sentence.

Bibliography

Edition based on a first reading by Dominic Goodall, completed and corrected by Chloé Chollet from photographs and a rubbing made by the National Museum of Phnom Penh. To be published in Chloé Chollet’s PhD thesis.

Notes

↑1. One can assume that the verb indicating the donation of what is listed from this stanza to stanza IV was in one of the missing stanzas at the beginning of the inscription.
↑2. I take the word aṅguli here as a probable equivalent of the word aṅguliyaka, which appears in several Old Khmer inscriptions to designate rings (see Soutif 2009: volume 1, page 296). The composer of the inscription probably omitted the last two syllables on purpose for metrical necessity.
↑3. Like many other terms or expressions in this inscription, kriyārccana usually appears only in Old Khmer inscriptions. The expressions rather used in Sanskrit stanzas for worship accessories are yajñopakaraṇa, pūjāsambhāra, or pūjopakaraṇa (see 2009: volume 1, page 178, № 287).
↑4. The compound yātanānarakān does not appear elsewhere in the corpus, but the two terms are often linked in the imprecatory portions of Old Khmer inscriptions (see, for example, the sequence yātanā Āya dvātrisanaraka in the inscription K. 524, l. 8.