Studies in the Geography of Ancient and Medieval India c5.s1.21

c5.s1.21

The word *cakravartin* means an imperial ruler, often also called *samrāṭ* (literally ‘paramount ruler’), *eka-cchatra* (literally, ‘one who alone enjoys the umberella or the insignia of sovereignty’), or *sārvabhauma* which literally means ‘the ruler of all land (i.e. the whole earth)’ but actually indicates a paramount ruler of a territory without owing allegiance to any overlord. The literal meaning of *cakravartin* is likewise ‘one rolling everywhere without obstruction’ or ‘a ruler, the wheels of who schariot roll everywhere without obstruction’. Two types of this class of rulers are indicated by the words *diśām-pati*, i.e. ‘the ruler of the quarters’, and *dig-vijayin*, i.e. ‘the conqueror of the quarters’, the word *diś* being used to signify the territories lying in all the four sides of the capital or original kingdom of the monarch in question. The distinction between the *dig-vijayin*, i.e. the ruler who acquired an empire by means of conquest, and the diśām-pati, i.e. one who inherited an empire from his forefathers is, however, not clearly maintained in literature.¹