Indian Epigraphy c16.s2.161

c16.s2.161

Very often the word *anudhyāta* and occasionally the word *parigṛhīta* are used in inscriptions from about the 4th century A.D. with reference to the relations between the predecessor and his successor on the throne, a king and his viceroy, an overlord and his feudatory, a god and his devotee, the father or parents and the son, etc.⁵ We have already referred to queen Prabhāvatiguptā’s epithet *Bhagavatpād-ānudhyātā*. The basic meaning of the root *anudhyai* is ‘to consider or think of attentively’, ‘to meditate’, etc. The *Mahābhārata*,⁶ uses the word *anudhyāta* in the active in the sense of ‘steeped in meditation’ and this meaning is not unsuitable to the contexts, though in *bhagavat-pād-ānudhyātā*, the word seems to be used in the passive to give the meaning *bhagavataḥ pādau anudhyātau yayā sā*. But since the object of one’s affection, favour or veneration demands one’s constant thought or meditation, the verb soon came to be used in the sense of ‘to wish well of’, ‘to bless’, ‘to favour’ and Kālidāsa’s *Raghuvamśa*¹ uses it in this sense.