The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.123

v2.c16.123

Prinsep reads the next clause *hovarāja-panasivasa*, and paraphrases it into "the former Rājā being then in his eighty-fifth year". The reading is dependent on two doubtful letters, whether the first two letters are *hova* or *hota*, and whether *panasi* is a corruption of the Sanskrit *pañcāsiti*, eighty-five? As regards the former, Prinsep, in the first part of his article,²⁰ writes *hota*, giving *bhuta* for its Sanskrit equivalent, but in the transcript given on page 1090, he has *hova*. In his facsimile the lower part of the [Figure:] (*v*) is angular, looking very like a defective [Figure:] (*t*). In my cast the lower part of the [Figure:] (*v*) is rounded, and I am forced, therefore, to accept the word to be *hova*. Now for its meaning. It is well known that the root *bhu* becomes *ho* in Pākṛt, and I have frequently met with it in the Gāthā dialect which was current long before the Prākṛt was formed.²¹ According to the [20] quotations given in Mr. Childer's *Pali Dictionary*, and D'Alwis' *Pali Grammar*, it would seem that both *bhu* and *ho* were used in Pali; sometimes the one and sometimes the other. Again, long before the Sanskrit *bhu* changed into *ho* in India, it had undergone a similar change in European languages; we accordingly have the Latin *habere*, the German *haben*, the Anglo-Saxon *habban*, the Gothic *haban*, the Dutch *hebben*, the Sweedish *hafva*, the Denish *have*, and the Spanish *haber*. I have no hesitation, therefore, in accepting the first part of the word to be the radical *bhu*. Now with the affix *kta* it becomes *bhuta*, 'that which was', or, as rendered by Prinsep, "former"; but in this past sense the former king should cease to be, and not be living in his eighty-fifth year. I prefer, therefore, to derive the word with the affix *i* (*bhāvi*) in a future sense, 'that which is to be'. *Bhāvi* should in Pali be *hobi*; in Bengali it is *habu*, and in Uriya *hobā*, and I am disposed to infer, therefore, that in the inscription the final *i* has been omitted as is too frequently the case in such records, or become illegible from age, or the proper form at the time was *hova*. In any case a futurity is implied, and taking, as I do, the *panasivasa* of Prinsep to be *pasasita*, a corruption of the Sanskrit *pratyāsita*, 'desiring', and *sa* 'he', the phrase would mean 'he desiring to become a king'. The word *puna*, 'thereupon', which follows is in perfect keeping with this. The next word *chatavisativase* may be read *chatuvisativase*. In either case it means 'in the twenty-fourth year', i. e., after fifteen years of play and nine of education, the person, on the twentyfourth year of his age, wishing to become a king, did what is next described. To gratify the desire for royalty, heroism is the first requirement, and this is indicated by the word *dānava-dhamen* 'with the characteristics' (*dharma*) 'of a giant', (*dānava*). Prinsep renders the phrase into "full of wisdom and uprightness", but this interpretation cannot be given to it without an amount of torturing which is quite inadmissible. The next requirement is an army, and this is described by the epithet *asesa-yodhena*, 'with a numerous army',—*aśeṣa*, 'endless,' and *yodhā*, 'warrior'. The line here terminates with two words, of which the first is an adjective, *adhivijaya*, ‘victorious’, qualifying the pronoun *sa* ‘he’, and the second *titye*, ‘third,’ referring to the word *sanyuge* in the third line.