Nākappaṭṭiṉam, bronze label

Editor: Emmanuel Francis.

Identifier: DHARMA_INSTamilNadu00302.

Summary: Label on a Buddhist bronze.

Language: Tamil.

Repository: Tamil Nadu (varia) (tfa-tamilnadu-epigraphy).

Version: (f8dc812), last modified (eecdbd5).

Edition

⟨1⟩ tiru-Araṅka-nāyakar

Translation by Ramachandran 1954

(1) The Nāyaka (Buddha), the lord of Buddhist forum of theological debate.1

Translation by Emmanuel Francis

(1) The glorious Lord [of] the stage (araṅkam2).

Commentary

Ramachandran 1954’s suggestion that the Buddha is here “the lord of Buddhist forum of theological debate” with reference to the Maturai caṅkappalakai3 appears far-fetched. It seems that the Buddha is presented here as a rival of Viṣṇu, known as Raṅganātha, "the Lord of the stage," in his famous temple on the Śrīraṅga island at Trichy.

See Tamil Nadu 381.

Bibliography

Edited in Ramachandran 1954, with a facsimile.

Edited and translated here by Emmanuel Francis (2024), based on Ramachandran 1954 and the facsimile therein.

Primary

[R1] Ramachandran, T. N. 1954. The Nāgapaṭṭiṇam and other Buddhist bronzes in the Chennai Museum. Madras: Government of Madras. Page TBC, plates XIV, no. 2.

[R2] Ramachandran, T. N. 2005. The Nāgapaṭṭiṇam and other Buddhist bronzes in the Chennai Museum. Revised edition. Chennai: Government of Tamilnadu. Page 106, pages III, no. 2.

Notes

  1. 1. Cf. Madurai caṅkappalakai.
  2. 2. That is, Sanskrit raṅga.
  3. 3. See MTL, s.v. caṅkappalakai: “Miraculous seat capable of accommodating only deserving scholars, believed to have been granted by Śiva at Madurai to the Sangam poets.”