Fragment of Prasat Preah Ko, Ta Keo (K. 1270), 5th-6th century CE EpiDoc Encoding Kunthea Chhom Arlo Griffiths intellectual authorship of edition Arlo Griffiths Kunthea Chhom Dominic Goodall DHARMA Siem Reap & Lyon DHARMA_INSCIK01270

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The lettering is characteristic of the fifth-sixth century CE. The akṣaras have very long ornamental descenders, as in K. 40 and K. 1515.

The project DHARMA has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement no 809994).

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 Modifications to paleographical remark and apparatus revisions after comments from Dominic Goodall edition and encoding of the inscription
tatraśītyāyam abhūn mahākratuḥ

... this ayam great sacrifice mahākratuḥ took place abhūt using eighty aśītyā ...

The remaining text is compatible with three at least three verse types, namely indravaṁśā, vaṁśamālā and vaṁśastha, the latter being rather common in Cambodian Sanskrit inscriptions.

Epic Sanskrit texts are full of rājasūyas and aśvamedhas that are described as mahākratu. If we assume, despite the problem formulated in our apparatus, that the text contained the word aśīti meaning eighty, and that this word qualified officiants, or sacrificial victims, it would mean that indeed the text was dealing with a rather large-scale ritual.

It seems impossible to interpret the sequence śītyāyam otherwise than as containing the words aśītyā and ayam. However, our tentative reading of the preceding akṣara as tra is not compatible with the idea that the text had the word aśīti: we would need trā, tro, tre, tya or tva before śī, but we are unable to match what we see on the photographs with any of those akṣaras.

Edited by Arlo Griffiths & Kunthea Chhom, in consultation with Dominic Goodall, from the photographs KPreah Kô - 004 - 029.