The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.129

v2.c16.129

Having thus been installed a king, what his first acts were are described in the next sentence. The words of the sentence are as follow : 1st, *Abhisita-mato*, ‘he whose mind was devoted to or immersed in’; Prinsep takes the word to meen, ‘the anointed’, or the person who got the royal unction. Following immediately after *abhisechana* of the preceding sentence, the word naturally suggests this inference; but in Sanskrit *abhisikta* takes the affix *vat* and not *mat*, and in the singular nominative, the word would be *abhisiktavān*, in Pāli *abhisitavān*. I am therefore disposed to take it as a compound of *abhisikta* and *mati*, ‘mind’. 2nd, *chāpadhame*, ‘in the religion of the bow’, i. e., in accordance with the duty imposed on kings or Kṣatriyas, Prinsep reads the word *vapadhamme*, and accordingly, taking *vapa* for *vipra*, ‘a Brahman’, infers that it has reference to the Brahmanical religion of the prince. The first letter, however, is clearly [Figure:] (*ch*) in his facsimile and also in my cast, and I prefer my reading both because it is in consonance with the text, and also with the sequel. 3rd, *vasavātavihata*, ‘destroyed by rain and wind’, Prinsep joins *vasa* with its preceding word, and takes it to mean “subject to”, but the *mata* of the first word having already supplied that sense, it would be tautological to repeat it 4th, *gopurapakara-nivesana*, ‘gates enclosing wall or fortification, and houses’. Prinsep reads the first letter *to* and joins it with the preceding word, but the compound so produced becomes unmeaning, and the letter, both in his facsimile and in my cast, is unmistakably *go*. 5th *patisankhārayati*, “causes to be repaired”. The several words put together, produce this sentence: “Devoted to the duty of kings, he causes, the gates, walls, and houses (ofthe city? or the palace?) which had been destroyed by rain and wind to be repaired”.