From the pieces
Currently, at the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture, there is a small stone slab engraved with 4 lines of Sanskrit, called "Van Khac", symbol BTC 83.
According to Henri Parmentier's notes in "Catalogue du Musée Cam de Tourane" (1919), this is a piece of a stone stele from the Cham tower group in Chien Dan, Tam Ky district, Quang Nam, brought by Mr. C. Paris to the plantation in Phong Le before 1900 and then moved to Tourane park in 1901.
In the book “Inventaire descriptif des monuments Cam de l'Annam” (1918), Parmentier said that the original stele at the Chien Dan relic had dimensions of 2m40 x 0m80; broken into 3 pieces, of which two pieces remained at the relic; was introduced by Amoynier in the magazine “Journal Asiatique” in 1896; and was included by Coedès in the “Statistical Table of Champa and Cambodian Inscriptions” (1908) with the symbol C 64.
Apart from the above general information, museum visitors do not know anything more about the specific content of the inscription. In 1989, when preparing the site for the restoration of the tower group at the Chien Dan relic, a working group of the Quang Nam - Da Nang Department of Culture discovered a large stone block with 9 lines of Sanskrit inscriptions, with traces of having been partially broken.
Until 2009, in her research on the Champa kingdoms in the second half of the 11th century (published in Péninsule No. 59), Anne Valérie Schweyer said that the stone block discovered in 1989 was one of three fragments of the C 64 inscription and relied on the stamped copies in the archives to translate this inscription into French.
In 2011, a research team led by Arlo Griffiths conducted a field survey of the stone block displayed at the Chien Dan relic site and BTC 83 at the Cham Museum, and compared it with the archival prints of the French School of the Far East (EFEO).
Thereby, the aim is to provide the most complete transcription of the entire C 64 inscription, along with English and Vietnamese translations, printed in the book "Champa Inscriptions at the Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture", published in 2012.
The summary reads as follows: “After a turbulent period marked by the rule of a bad king who left Champa in ruins, the future king Harivarman expelled a coalition of enemies from his country.
Harivarman became king of the Champa kingdom and began to rebuild the country: he built a capital, restored the citadel of Tralauṅ Svon and made the country prosperous again.
He expanded the borders of Champa and made some neighboring lands submit to Champa. King Harivarman offered gifts to the gods of Madhurāpura and erected a linga at Harināpura.
He offered the captured prisoners to various local gods. He reformed the tax system and made Champa even more powerful than before the period of turmoil. The king was satisfied.”
Links in the inscription content
The date of the inscription is determined to be the early 11th century, which was the period when Champa had just experienced fierce wars with neighboring countries. The Kambuja (Cambodia) inscription during the reign of King Rajendravarman II (944 - 968) recorded attacks on Champa, "the capital of Champa was burned to ashes".
An inscription at the Po Nagar relic site (Nha Trang) also mentions Kambuja stealing a golden statue from a Champa temple. Dai Viet history records Le Hoan’s attack on the Champa capital in 982, “flattening the citadel and destroying the ancestral temples.”
Inscription C 64 at the Chien Dan site mentions “the rule of a bad king leaving a ruined Champa country”, which was restored under King Harivarman.
This is also consistent with information recorded in the Song Dynasty (China) history about the events leading to the change of Champa kings in the late 10th century along with the evacuation of some Champa clans to Hainan Island at that time.
In particular, the C 64 Chiên Đàn inscription mentions a ruined capital named Tralauṅ Svon, which was rebuilt by King Harivarman. This is the name of a capital mentioned in other inscriptions at the Mỹ Sơn site (inscriptions C 89, C 94), in the context of Siṃhapura (inscription C 95, year 1056).
Up to now, only excavations have found traces of a citadel in Tra Kieu, believed to be Simhapura, close to the center of Sivaism in My Son; meanwhile, the location and name of the citadel associated with the center of Buddhist belief in Dong Duong are still a mystery. Is it related to Tralauṅ Svon in the Chiên Đàn inscription?
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