Po Dam slab (C. 246), 631 Śaka

Editor: Arlo Griffiths.

Identifier: DHARMA_INSCIC00246.

Hand description:

The lettering is characteristic of the eighth century CE.

Language: Sanskrit.

Repository: Campa (tfc-campa-epigraphy).

Version: (0db3340), last modified (fd811f1).

Edition

⟨1⟩ (s)vasti

I. Anuṣṭubh

kṣoṇī-bahni-rasāṅkite

a

śa(ka)-(va)r(ṣ)ārāmāśrite |

b

trige ⟨2⟩ phālguṇyasya site

c

sa śu⟨⟨kra⟩⟩divase ⟨’⟩(tha)

d

Apparatus

⟨1⟩ -(va)r(ṣ)ārāmāśrite • This reading is unmetrical and very uncertain also for other reasons. The second akṣara looks more like rtha or rthā; the first would seem to bear a repha or vowel marker (ā or ī).

Translation by Arlo Griffiths

When the Śaka year had reached a halt (ārāma?) in (1) earth, (3) fires, (6) flavors, in the waxing fortnight of Phalguṇa, on the third, a Friday.

Commentary

The inscription seems to form one almost complete stanza in the Anuṣṭubh meter, the last syllable being entirely lost or never written. It comprises only or almost exlusively a dating formula, of which I so far understand only the chronogam (kṣoṇi-bahni-rasa ‘earth-fires-flavors’ = 1-3-6, so 631 Śaka) and the indication of the month and fortnight (phālguṇyasya site ‘in the waxing fortnight of Phālguṇa’). Presumably trige indicates the quanitième as ‘third’, in which case we land on Thursday, February 6, 710 CE, one day off from the indication śukradivase (Thursday) in the text.

Bibliography