Nākappaṭṭiṉam, bronze label

Editor: Emmanuel Francis.

Identifier: DHARMA_INSTamilNadu00375.

Summary: Label on a Buddhist bronze.

Language: Tamil.

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

Version: (4a0c02e), last modified (eecdbd5).

Edition

⟨1⟩ Āḷ-uṭaiya ṉā⟨2⟩yakar

Translation by Ramachandran 1954

(1–2) The Nāyakar (i.e., Lord Buddha) who was the Lord of people.

Translation by Emmanuel Francis

(1–2) The Lord, Lord of men.

Commentary

Ramachandran 1954 comments thus: “In this votive offering the Buddha is appropriately praised as the Lord of men in the spiritual sense.”

The terms āḷ-uṭaiyāṉ / āḷ-uṭaiyaṉ and āḷ-uṭaiya, respectively a nominal and a adjectival form, literally mean "who owns/possesses men/servants/devotees". See MTL, s.v. āḷ-uṭaiyāṉ: “n. 1. One who has accepted a person as servant; 2. Lord, Supreme Being.” In the present case, it is not clear, but not relevant for the meaning, if we have to read āḷ-uṭaiyaṉāyakar (āḷ-uṭaiyaṉ + nāyakar) or āḷ-uṭaiya ¡ṉ!⟨n⟩āyakar.

Compare Tamil Nadu 320.

The Śaiva saints and poets of the Tēvāram, Appar, Cuntarar, and Campantar, are respectively known in epigraphical sources as āḷ-uṭaiya v-aracu, āḷ-uṭaiya nampi, and āḷ-uṭaiya piḷḷaiyār / āḷ-uṭaiya tēvar.

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 p. 62, plates XXVII, no. 75.

[R2] Ramachandran, T. N. 2005. The Nāgapaṭṭiṇam and other Buddhist bronzes in the Chennai Museum. Revised edition. Chennai: Government of Tamilnadu. Page 74, plates VI, no. 75.