Current Version: draft, 2023-11-08Z
Editors: Dominic Goodall, Diwakar Acharya, Chloé Chollet, Kunthea Chhom and Nina Mirnig.
DHARMA Identifier: INSCIWatPhraNgamInscription
Summary: This inscription in 6 Sanskrit verses in elaborate metres begins (stanza 1) with praise of a deity, perhaps Brahmā, then (stanza 2) praises of a king, whose name is lost to damage, then (stanza 3) further praise of the king in which he is likened to an avatāra of Viṣṇu, then (stanza 4) what may be still further praise of the king likening him to Hanumān (?), then (stanza 5) praise of a city whose name is not Sanskritic. That city may be either compared with Hastināpurī and Dvāravatī, or it stands at the head of a list in which Hastināpurī and Dvāravatī are also included. The final stanza (6) enumerates the gifts of gold, cattle, lands and slaves that the king gave to Paśupati (presumably there was a śiva-liṅga at this place).
Hand Description:
The lettering is similar to that of seventh-century Khmer epigraphs, but with unusually elongated descending and ascending strokes, volutes and flourishes. The ā-mātra, for instance, is sometimes short and business-like, but sometimes is allowed to descend well below the body of the character to which it is attached and to loop underneath it. This recalls C8th records, such as K. 1254. But the archaic shape of most instances of the retroflex ṇ instead recalls fifth-century records such as K. 875. Arguably another archaism is the dropped miniaturised final m, apparently with a virāma beneath it, in the last line. Such miniaturised letters are found in old records from various parts of the Indian world (for instance in Licchavi inscriptions), but we know of none from Khmer records. A discussion of their use elsewhere in Southeast Asia, however, may be found in Griffiths et al. 2017: pages 84–88.
No metadata were provided in the table for this inscription
First edited in Silpakorn Journal. Edited here again from photos, with integral translation into English, by Dominic Goodall etc.