A discharge lamp lighting device includes an inverter circuit connected through a first impedance element across output ends of a rectifier rectifying an AC source power, a smoothing capacitor inserted through a discharging diode in a power supply path to the inverter circuit, and a series circuit of a second impedance element, discharge lamp and inductor and connected between an output end of the inverter circuit and one output end of the rectifier, wherein a path for charging the smoothing capacitor is formed through a switching element included in the inverter circuit, and the discharging diode.