Nākappaṭṭiṉam, bronze label

Author of digital edition: Emmanuel Francis (emfr).

Contributor: Emmanuel Francis (emfr).

Summary: Label on a Buddhist bronze.

Language: Tamil (tam) [Grantha (grantha), Tamil (tamil)].

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

Identifier: DHARMA_INSTamilNadu00344.

File path: DHARMA_INSTamilNadu00344.xml.

Version: 2026-08-14 13:24 (69e3379), last modified 2026-07-17 15:32 (b80acdf).

Edition

⟨1⟩ svasti śrī ∥ nittaṉ mati-¡ṉ!āyakar

Apparatus

⟨1⟩ nittaṉ mati° ⬦ nittaṉa-mati° R1.

Translation by Ramachandran 1954

⟨1⟩ Hail! Prosperity!

⟨1⟩ The Nāyakar (i.e., Lord Buddha) who was Nittanamati.

Translation

⟨1⟩ Prosperity! Fortune!

⟨1⟩ The Lord of/with discernment (mati), the supreme being (nittaṉ).

Commentary

Ramachandran 1954 comments thus: “The word Nittanamati is evidently not to be taken here as a proper name. It may mean "one who had set his mind on poverty (wealthlessness)." The words nittaṉam and mati remind us of their Sanskrit counterparts nirdhana and mati. And the Buddha was certainly a Nirdhanamati having renounced the world.”

Ramachandran 1954’s interpretation is not fully convincing as it would be the only attestation of nittaṉam, whereas nittaṉ (from Sanskrit nitya) is found in MTL.¹

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. Bulletin of the Madras Government Museum, New series, General section 7.1. Madras: Government Press. Page TBC, plate TBC.

[R2] Ramachandran, T. N. 2005. The Nāgapaṭṭiṇam and other Buddhist bronzes in the Chennai Museum. Revised edition. Chennai: Government of Tamilnadu. Page 56, plates V, no. 44.

Notes

1. See MTL, s.v. nittaṉ: “n. 1. The Supreme Being, as eternal; 2. Śiva; 3. Arhat.”

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