‘Provisions for the Future in Inscriptions’: a DHARMA Panel at the 19th World Sanskrit Conference, Kathmandu, Nepal
At the 19th World Sanskrit Conference, held from 26 to 30 June 2025 in Kathmandu, Nepal, five members of the DHARMA Project – Annette Schmiedchen, Daniel Balogh, Ryosuke Furui, Samana Gururaja and Amandine Wattelier Bricout – presented a special panel entitled ‘Provisions for the Future in Inscriptions’:
Schmiedchen, Annette (Humboldt University, Berlin): Perpetual Endowment Stipulations and the Institutionalisation of Religion
Balogh, Dániel (Humboldt University, Berlin): How a parama-māheśvara King Endows a Jain Temple: The Peddāpurappāḍu Charters of Viṣṇuvardhana II
Furui, Ryosuke (The University of Tokyo): Assets for the Future: Landed Wealth in the Bengal Charters
Gururaja, Samana (Humboldt University, Berlin): The Transfer of Power from the Rāṣṭrakuṭas to the Kalyāṇa Cālukyas as Reflected in the Renewal of Land Grants
Wattelier-Bricout, Amandine (CESAH, Aubervilliers): Rāma’s Address to Future Kings: A Cosmopolitan Guarantee of Perpetuity?
The panel summary and abstracts of the presentations are available here.

“Assets for the Future: Landed Wealth in the Bengal Charters” Ryosuke Furui, 19th WSC, Nepal (credit photo: R. Schmiedchen)

Rāma’s Address to Future Kings: A Cosmopolitan Guarantee of Perpetuity? by Amandine Wattelier-Bricout, 19th WSC, Nepal (Credit photo: R. Schmiedchen)

Perpetual Endowment Stipulations and the Institutionalisation of Religion, Annette Schmiedchen, 19th WSC, Nepal (Credit photo: R. Schmiedchen)
During their trip to Nepal, the DHARMA project team visited various museums and sites in Kathmandu, documenting, identifying and photographing inscriptions on display or visible on site. This survey allowed Amandine Wattelier-Bricout to compile a record of protective formulas in inscriptions that had not yet been covered by other project members. For instance, she identified one such Sanskrit formula[1] at the end of a Newari stone inscription from 1822 AD (Bāgmati, Pacalī), which is on display at the National Museum in Kathmandu. This confirms that these formulas have been used for a long time, including in Nepal.

Protective formula quoted in a Newari Inscription preserved in the National Museum (Bāgmati, Pacalī, 1822 AD) ( Credit: Amandine Wattelier-Bricout)
Similar examples in stone inscriptions have also been observed at the Patan Museum (Kathmandu) confirming once again that these protective formulas are not reserved solely for donations recorded on copper plates or royal charters, but are also used on other media.

One microfilm preserved in the National Archives of Kathmandu (Credit: Amandine Wattelier-Bricout)
As part of her research into protection formulas, Amandine Wattelier-Bricout visited two archives in Kathmandu (the National Archives and the Asa Safoo Kuth or Asa Archives), where she spent several days viewing microfilms and collecting digital images of Purāṇic manuscripts.[2]
Bibliography
Fleet, John Faithfull. 1888. « Nirmand copper-plate inscription of the Mahasamata and Mahararaja Samudrasena ». In Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, First edition, 3:286‑91. Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing.
Kielhorn, Lorenz Franz. 1896. « Chikkulla Plates of Vikramendravarman ». Epigraphia Indica 4:193‑98.
Sircar, Dines Chandra. 1965. « Stanzas on Bhūmi-Dāna Quoted in Raja-Śāsanas, Appendix II ». In Indian Epigraphy, 170‑201. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.
Wattelier-Bricout, Amandine. 2025. « Rāma’s address to future kings: a cosmopolitan guarantee of perpetuity? » Kathmandu, Nepal, juin. https://hal.science/hal-05136787.
[1] The stanza engraved on this stone can be read as follows :
svadattaṁ paradattaṁ vā jo harantī vasuṁdharā
ṣaśṭhīvarṣasahaśrānī vistāyāṁ jāyate kṛmī
This somewhat erroneous stanza corresponds to a variation of the very wide-spread stanza numbered 132 in the list established by Sircar 1965. According to him, this variation can be read in a seventh century plate discovered in Himachal Pradesh (the Nirmand copper-plate inscription of the Mahasamata and Mahararaja Samudrasena could be dated on paleographic grounds about the seventh century according to Fleet 1888, pp. 287). I have also found one occurrence of this specific variation in the Chikkulla plates of Vikramendravarman, a grant dated from the end of the 8th century AD and discovered in Andhra Pradesh (Kielhorn 1896, pp. 195). The quotation of this stanza on the19th century stele preserved at the National Museum (Kathmandu), shows that this particular version was quoted several centuries and thousands of kilometres away from the earliest known quotations, which date to the seventh and eighth centuries.
[2] To learn more about the link between purāṇic literature and protective formulas found in South-asian epigraphy, see Wattelier-Bricout 2025.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Amandine Wattelier-Bricout (July 11, 2025). ‘Provisions for the Future in Inscriptions’: a DHARMA Panel at the 19th World Sanskrit Conference, Kathmandu, Nepal. DHARMA project ERC n° 809994. Retrieved May 20, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/14buw


