Watu Genuk slab (8th c. CE) EpiDoc Encoding Arlo Griffiths intellectual authorship of edition Arlo Griffiths DHARMA Jakarta DHARMA_INSIDENKWatuGenuk

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Copyright (c) 2019-2025 by Arlo Griffiths

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Script indicating a dating to the late 8th or in the 9th century. One instance each of jihvāmūlīya (ẖ) and upadhmānīya (ḫ), known elsewhere in Java only in the inscriptions of Pūrṇavarman.

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.

 improved edition, translation improved edition, translation finished basic encoding first commit of initial reading
mahādeve mudā bhaktiḥ tridhā yasya viśeṣataḥ sahāye veai sadā bhuktiḥ sudhāmno 'sya vaśe sataḥ yaẖ kālo varṣa-māsa-prabhr̥tir iha budhair ggaṇyate vistareṇa yad dhema śreṣṭham iṣṭañ jagati bahuvidhaṁ pūraya dampatyor yyogato yaḫ prabhavati tanayas so yathā cendriyāṇāṁ viṣṇuṁ bhāryyāṁ sutan trīn satatam iha mudā kāryyasiddhyai namāmi

He who, with joy, has particular devotion to Mahādeva i.e., Śiva three times per day, that good one is a fine locus for Śiva, or for devotion to Śiva and always has at will the pleasure of Śiva as a companion.

As time, which the learned reckon extensively using such units of measure as years, months, etc.; as best kind of gold which is desired in the world in its various forms ;The expression best kind of gold (hema śreṣṭham ... bahuvidham) may be an allusion to the passage of chapter 2.13 of the Arthaśāstra which presents a classification of types of gold. In that chapter (2.13.4), we read: kiñjalka-varṇaṃ mr̥du snigdham anādi bhrājiṣṇu ca śreṣṭham The best kind has the color of lotus filament and is soft, smooth, not sonorous, and radiant (130). as the son who is born from the union of spouses' organs, so I constantly bow, with joy, to the three here — Viṣṇu, his wife and their son — for the success of undertakings.

The text is incomplete. Traces of the very top of a 7th line are visible on the photos. Unusual cross marks occupy the space between lines 1 and 2. Extra space is left open between stanzas 1 and 2.

The interpretation of stanza II is quite uncertain, partly because of the lacuna at the end of line 4 and the uncertainty of the readings at the ends of lines 5 and 6. One has the impression that the three figures mentioned in the fourth verse quarter somehow correspond to the items Time (Viṣṇu), Gold (= Lakṣmī, Viṣṇu's wife) and Son of the preceding three verse quarters. The identification of Viṣṇu with Time is not a standard one, though one can imagine the identification being made with reference to Bhagavadgītā 11.32 where Kr̥ṣṇa, the avatāra of Viṣṇu, declares kālo 'smi I am Time. Still it is not clear who the son would be.

Read by Arlo Griffiths on 31st January through 3 February, 2023 from photos and a 3D model furnished respectively by Kusworo Rahadyan and by Goenawan Sambodo.