A stone inscription from Tāpā Hiti West, Patan, recording its renovation by a resident of Ṅādharapona (NS 824)
ID: NHDP_0002_0113
Edited and
translated by Jeevan Kumar Maharjan and Rajendra Shakya
Created: 2026-08-30;
Last modified: 2026-11-11
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Abstract
This stone inscription from Tāpā Hiti West in Patan records the renovation of a water spout by a resident of Ṅādharapona in NS 824 (1704 CE) after it had fallen into ruin.Diplomatic edition
[1r]
1᠀ऊँश्री[...]1 श्रीमदमोघसिद्धिशंसप्त[?]णाविभूषितंध्यानाभयकरंधार्य्यं2 नमेदुहं3 भुवनेश्वरं।।2श्री३[...][...][...]वपालग4 वीरश्री३योगनरेन्द्रमल्लदेवस्यविजय
3राज्ये[...]थ्ववेरसदानपतिङाधरपोनरा[...]सनङ्हवदस्यंचोङहितिभग्नजुवस
4पुनर्व्वारजीर्ण्णोधारयाङंप्रतिष्ठायाङादिनजुरो।।संवत्८२४कार्त्तिककृष्णद्वितिया[?]5 ।।शुभः॥
Translation
[1r]
[May there be] success! Om. [Having bowed to the noble Jina/Buddha], I bow unto Bhuvaneśvara,6 the glorious Lord Amoghasiddhi—who makes the meditation and fearlessness gestures (dhyānābhaya-kara).
Threefold glorious…7
During the victorious reign of [the supreme king of kings (mahārājādhirāja)], the heroic, threefold venerable Yoganarendra Malladeva—[an adept scholar who] has crossed [the ocean of music (saṅgītārṇṇava-pāraga)]—at this [propitious] time, because the pre-existing water spout (i.e., Tāpā Hiti West) had fallen into ruin, the donor (dānapati) [residing in the locality of] Nyādhaḥ (text: Ṅādharapona), Rā[... and his family],8 renovated [the hiti] again and reconsecrated [it] on this day: [Sunday,] the 2nd of the dark fortnight of Kārttika, [Nepāla] Samvat 824 (1704 CE). [May there be] auspiciousness!
Commentary
This inscription is engraved upon the pedestal stone of an Amoghasiddhi shrine positioned directly above the southern spout of Tāpā Hiti West (see DANAM LAL0842) in Patan. As observed during the July 2020 DANAM survey, the stele is in an advanced state of deterioration, with severe surface flaking and stone chips lost in multiple areas. Nevertheless, despite these extensive lacunae, the surviving text preserves the essential chronological, political, and spatial details of the event, with only the full personal name of the primary benefactor remaining obscure.
Characterizing the project as a restoration executed "again" (punarvvāra), the inscription points out another repair previously undertaken by possibly the donor's family lineage or local neighbourhood. Although the text does not specifically record the commissioning of a statue, the opening Sanskrit invocation provides a terminus ante quem for one: it precisely describes Amoghasiddhi canopied by a seven-headed serpent and exhibiting the dhyāna and abhaya hand gestures—mirroring the exact iconographic attributes of the seated sculpture mounted directly upon this inscribed stone block. While Bangdel (1995: 287) attributed this sculpture to the 12th century, its craftsmanship suggests a much later origin. The statue’s spatial integration and textual reflection in the opening verse strongly suggest that it was crafted contemporaneously with the NS 824 (1704 CE) reconstruction of the hiti during King Yoganarendra Malla’s reign.
This is a non-royal civic agency from the early 18th-century Patan, as the donors are identified by their provenance in Ṅādharapona, the classical toponym for modern Nyādhaḥ, situated merely a few metres south of Tāpā Hiti. This spatial proximity demonstrates how locals were proactive in maintaining surrounding infrastructure in the Malla period, rather than waiting for direct royal treasury funding to repair it. As usual, the practice of invoking the reigning king’s name (Yoganarendra Malla) is observed.
