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NOTES ON AŚOKA'S ROCK EDICTS
M. A. Mehendale
POONA.
(1) ROCK EDICT X
The last line of this edict has been divided by Hultzsch into two sections as follows:1
E dukaram tu kho etaṁ chudakena va janena usatena va añatra agena
parăkramena savam paricajitpă /
F
eta tu kho usatena dukaram
:
Hultzsch translates the above sections as follow. :
(E) “But it is indeed difficult either for a lowly person or for a high one to accomplish this without great zeal (and without) laying aside every (other aim).
(F) But among these two) it is indeed (more) difficult to accomplish for a high (person)."
The versions at Shāh., Mān., Kāl. and Yerra. are in substantial agreement with the Girnar version. As understood by Hultzsch, section E does not indicate any difference between the lowly person and the highly placed one regarding the effort they have to make for the attainment of merit. Both are expected to make great effort and leave aside every other aim for its attainment. When this has been once said, there really does not seem to be any point in merely repeating in the following section what has been already said for the highly placed one in the previous section.
Hultzsch tries to remedy this situation by taking recourse to the comparative expression dukalatale which occurs in the Jaug. version and translates '(more) difficult to accomplish' although in the Gir, text we have only dukaraṁ without any comparative suffix. A distinction has thus been obtained between the lowly person and the high one. For the former, the accomplishment of merit is difficult, for the latter, it is more difficult.3
Madhu Vidyā/307
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