Statue of Śiva mounted on his Bull from Drang Lai (C. 42), 1331 Śaka

Editors: Salomé Pichon, Arlo Griffiths.

Identifier: DHARMA_INSCIC00042.

Language: Old Cham.

Repository: Campa (tfc-campa-epigraphy).

Version: (a2d4f44), last modified (8d5ff0e).

Edition

⟨1⟩ sidaḥ yām̃ pom̃ ku śrī bhr̥⟨2⟩ ṣuviṣṇujāt(t)i vīrabhadravr̥rmmadeva ā⟨3⟩ dīnāma pom̃ cim̃ (ṇa)n· thām̃ amā pu pom̃ ku ⟨4⟩ urām̃ paramapūra ṅauk· glaum̃ vijaya pajaḥ parok· ⟨5⟩ glai hayāv· pavam̃k· kraum̃ hayāv· parok· glai ṅap· jem̃ ⟨6⟩ humā bhām̃ ya doṁ yvan· si pu pom̃ ku mak· di nagara yvan· vā ⟨7⟩ rai vuḥ sa pamr̥m̃m̃ yām̃ pu inā ja siddhi pu pom̃ ku yvā vrim̃ kire⟨8⟩ ndra dvā pluḥ kukum̃ ka pu pom̃ ku gvac·| ṅan· ya doṁ mahnākire⟨9⟩ndra vukam̃n· ya syāṁ rūpa ka pu pom̃ ku gvac· madā do[ṁ] pramānna ⟨10⟩ pada(m̃)ṅ· rūmaḥ vrim̃ nāma śrīsamr̥m̃ddhipurī pakr̥m̃tta kutī dakṣinā⟨11⟩gni harmya nan· vrim̃ śilpakāra| rijan· śivaprathimānna pyauḥ bha⟨12⟩nakti prathidinna di loka ṅan· paraloka dudim̃ nau| mayvā di pu p⟨13⟩om̃ tana rayā dudim̃ ya dr̥m̃ṅ· rāja jmai paliṅyak· rājadharmma ⟨14⟩ 1331

Translation by Griffiths 2019

It is Y.P.K. Śrī Br̥ṣuviṣṇujāti Vīrabhadravarmadeva. The original name of that (ṇan?) prince, like his father, P.P.K., is Man of Paramapūra Ṅauk Glauṅ Vijaya. He cleared and cut down the forest of Hayāv (‘Fish’?). He dammed the Hayāv river. He cut down the forest. He made the ricefields become dry (bhaṅ?). All the Viets whom P.P.K. captured in the land of the Viets, he brought [them] here and gave [them] as papamr̥m̃ (cf. Old Khmer pamre?) to Milady the Mother who is successful. P.P.K. as guest (yvā?) gave twenty kirendra (‘montagnards’? correct mahnākirendra?) which/who(m) (kukum̃ = kum̃?) to P.P.K. gvac(ignore the punctuation |) together with all the other mahnākirendras who were beautiful in appearance to P.P.K. gvac present in all provinces. He erected a palace giving it the name Śrīsamr̥ddhipurī. He had made (pakr̥m̃tta = pa-kr̥ta, causative prefix on Sanskrit form kr̥ta meaning ‘made’?) a chamber for the south fire of that stronghold. He instructed an artisan to make a statue (prathimānna = pratimā?) of Śiva. [He admonished the population:] Let there be worship every day, with a view to (the prosperity of all and sunder in) the world [here] and later in the next world! Go (ignore the punctuation |) as guests to their majesties in the future who will hold the kingdom (rāja = rājya)! Do not destroy the king’s foundation. [Engraved in the Śaka year] 1331.

Commentary

The punctuation sign | apparently has to be ignored in order properly to break down the text. Comparison with the opening of inscriptions such as C. 30A1, C. 30B4, C. 47, C. 86.1, C. 89 (face B) and C. 225 strongly suggests that at least one, possibly two lines of text would, in the original state of the inscribed sculpture, have preceded the text as we have it now. Given the limited amount of space that would have been available between tapering margins, one expects little more that what we read e.g. in C. 86.1, lines 1-2: <quatrefoil> madā pu pom̃ tana rayā sidaḥ yām̃ pom̃ ku śrī jayaparameśvaravarmmadeva ..., or perhaps a shorter version of what we see in C. 225, l. 1-3: [|]<quatrefoil>| svasti| jaya ni trā madā paramarājādhirāja sidaḥ yām̃ pom̃ ku śrī vraṣuviṣṇujāt(t)i vīrabhadravarmmadeva .... So the line-numbers adopted in this edition are off by 1 or 2 from the original state of the text.

Bibliography

Mentioned by Majumdar 1985, p. 223, whence by Golzio 2004, p. 199.1 About half of the text was edited, without translation, in Schweyer 2008, p. 227. This first complete reading of the inscription was done from photographs provided by the Museum of Fine Art and the EFEO estampage.2

Primary

[AG] Griffiths, Arlo. 2019. “Études du corpus des inscriptions du Campā, VI: Epigraphical Texts and Sculptural Steles Produced under the Vīrabhadravarmadevas of 15th-Century Campā.” In: Champa: Territories and Networks of a Southeast Asian Kingdom. Edited by Arlo Griffiths, Andrew Hardy and Geoff Wade. Etudes thématiques 31. Paris: École française d’Extrême-Orient, pp. 193–219. [URL]. Pages 202–204.

[AVS] Schweyer, Anne-Valérie. 2008. “L’époque dite décadente au Campā : Vers une réhabilitation des 14e-15e siècles.” In: From Homo Erectus to the Living Traditions: Choice of Papers from the 11th International Conference of the European Association of Southeast Asian Archaeologists, Bougon, 25th-29th September 2006. Edited by Jean-Pierre Pautreau, Anne-Sophie Coupey, Valéry Zeitoun and Emma Rambault. No place, pp. 221–230. Page 227.

Secondary

Parmentier, Henri. 1909. Inventaire descriptif des monuments čams de l’Annam. Tome premier: Description des monuments. Paris: Imprimerie nationale. [URL]. Pages 562–563.

Dournes, Jacques. 1970. “Recherches sur le haut Champa.” France-Asie / Asia 24 (2), pp. 143–162. Page 146.

[ECIC-III] Griffiths, Arlo, Amandine Lepoutre, William Aelred Southworth and Thành Phần. 2008–2009. “Études du corpus des inscriptions du Campā, III: Épigraphie du Campa 2009-2010: prospection sur le terrain, production d'estampages, supplément à l'inventaire.” BEFEO 95, pp. 435–497. DOI: 10.3406/befeo.2008.6118. [URL]. Page 448.

Notes

  1. 1. The information published by Golzio is at least eight decades outdated with regard to the location of the inscription, and even his source Majumdar was already wrong in stating that the inscription is “mutilated”. In fact the inscription is very well preserved.
  2. 2. This estampage has been reproduced as fig. 8 (p. 43) in Schweyer 2005.