Introduction, translated from Sanskrit and commented by A. O. ZAKHAROV The article offers a translation and commentary of one of the most important early inscriptions of Champa, a country in Central Vietnam, published in 658 under King Prakashadharma-Vikrantavarman and found in the world-famous Mishon temple complex near building E 6. It provides the most detailed genealogy of the kings of Michonne, on the basis of which historians reconstruct the political history of Champa in the V-VII centuries [Majumdar 1927 (1); Maspero, 1928; Coedès, 1968; Southworth, 2001; Schweyer, 2011 (in print)]. Keywords: Champa, Vietnam, Mishon, inscription, Prakashadharma, Vikrantavarman, Sanskrit. The Michon Temple complex, included in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1997, was created by the rulers of ancient Champa, a country that spoke one of the Austronesian languages of the people of Central Vietnam. It is from there that most of the inscriptions of the early stage of its history (V-VIII centuries) originate. The most ancient inscriptions were probably those of King Bhadravarman (see Zakharov, 2011(1), pp. 16-24) .1 The subsequent political history of Champa is known from the texts of his predecessors, and especially from the Sanskrit inscription of King Prakashadharma-Vikrantavarman 658, which gives his ancestry, but does not mention Bhadravarman. It is quite possible that he was not the ancestor of Prakashadharma. In this article, I would like to offer a commented translation of this Prakashadharma inscription, which is known as number 96 in the Champa inscription catalog (p. 96, i.e. Champa 96) [CdDès, 1908, p.47]. This is the first accurately dated Champa inscription, although dates are also given in the Michon inscription on page 73: on side A there is a reference to the fifth century of the Indian shaka era, and on side B to the sixth [Finot, 1903, p. 206-211, fig. 23; Majumdar, 1927(2), p. 11-13; Huber, 1911, p. 264]2. According to L. Finot, A.-W. Schweier and K.-H. Golzi ... Read more