To prevent excessive light emitting of a high-pressure discharge lamp by restricting current immediately after starting the high-pressure discharge lamp.

The discharge lamp lighting apparatus includes a power supply circuit 100, a lighting circuit 200, and a high-pressure discharge lamp LP. The lighting circuit 200 generates an AC voltage of a rectangular wave via an inverter 13 and lights the high-pressure discharge lamp LP after boosting a direct current power supply 12 by a converter 11. At the time of start, a high-pulse voltage is generated from an igniter 14, the insulation of the high-pressure discharge lamp LP is broken down, and arc discharge is generated between electrodes, then light-emitting is continued by continuous power supply from the inverter 13. Immediately after the pulse voltage of dielectric breakdown is generated, a control signal c which turns off a switch S1 is supplied from a control part 15 for only 100 sec, and a resistivity R1 for current restriction is connected. Accordingly, the excessive light-emitting of the high-pressure discharge lamp LP based on a large lamp current at the time of start can be prevented.