Mahābalipuram Gopis’ churn word EpiDoc encoding Emmanuel Francis intellectual authorship of edition Emmanuel Francis DHARMA Paris, CEIAS DHARMA_INSPallava00363

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 2019-2025 DHARMAbase Isolated name found on a cistern excavated in a rock in front of the Trimūrti cave. This cistern is nowadays called the Gopi's Churn in reference to Kṛṣṇa narratives. The inscription itself consist in four syllables in Grantha script. It appears to be a name, either a graffiti or a signature. It is not clear if it has a closer connexion with the cistern on which it is engraved.

The project DHARMA has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no 809994).

Public URIs with the prefix bib to point to a Zotero Group Library named ERC-DHARMA whose data are open to the public.

Internal URIs using the part prefix to point to person elements in the DHARMA_IdListMembers_v01.xml file.

 Updating toward the encoding template v03 Creation of the file

śrī-kaāviti

kaāviti kāviti kadhīti kaviti There is on the stone some mark that could be the glyph for -ā. Whether the inscription was not deeply engraved or has been worn out, both readings are possible, even though kāviti makes more sense. On the figures published by Jouveau-Dubreuil the reading is kaviti.

The glorious Kāviti.

L'illustre Kāviti.

On kāviti, see MTL, s.v.: 1. Ancient title bestowed on Vēḷāḷas by Pāṇḍya kings; 2. Title conferred on Vaiśya ladies; 3. Minister; 4. Accountant caste; 5. Collector of revenues.

A poet named Peruṅkāviti Caṭaiyaṉpaḷḷi composed the verse in INSPallava00119, see line 13.

(p. 163) suggests that kāviti, which he reads kaviti, in fact represents what would be pronounced gaviti in Tamil and would mean gokula. It seems that this interpretation is based on the assumption that the name Gopis' churn has some relevance to the Pallava period, which one may doubt like in the case of other landmarks of Mahābalipuram recently (18th/19th century) renamed after Kṛṣṇa, e.g. the nearby Kṛṣṇa's butter ball.

Reported in .

Text in (IP 363).

Edited here by Emmanuel Francis (2020), based on autopsy and photographs (2017).

XXXI, B (facing page 64) XXXI, B (facing page 59) 363 762 73 B/1959-1960 266 163