Indian Antiquary Vol 18

SR No.: 032510
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: John Faithfull Fleet, Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications
Publication Year: 1984
Total Pages: 454
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 326

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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[OCTOBER, 1889.
22. The particle chu can very well commence the sentence: we have seen (I. note 3) that it implies slight opposition, but now,' a statement which is immediately verified once more in the following sentence. The only difficulty which exista, is in the words dhanmaniyama and nijhati. The first is sufficiently defined by the sequel. It means the rules, the prohibitions inspired by the Religion,' such as the forbidding the slaughter of such and such animals. Nijhati is less clear. However, after what has been said above (IV. note 10) about the verb mijhapayati, I think that we need not hesitate to derive from it the substantive mijhatti as we do vijñapti from vijñāpayati. It would, in that case, mean the action of calling the attention, reflexion. If this is correct, the two conditions of progress which the king distinguishes would be, on the one hand, positive prohibitions, duly enumerated, and on the other, the personal feelings awakened by the prohibitions, and, in general, by religious instruction. It seems to me that what follows confirms this interpretation. Twice does Piyadasi warn us that it is the nijhati which alone gives all its importance and all its development to the niyama, which by itself is but a small thing. Regarding the meaning thus given to lahu, laghu, we may compare not only lahuká in the sense of contempt' in the 12th edict of Girnår, but especially the adjective lahukd in the 13th edict of Khálsi, I. 12, note w. The meaning appears to me to be very clear: it is natural that the king should attach less importance to the material observance of a few necessarily limited rules, than to the spirit which he would propagate among his people and which would inspire them, for example, with a still wider and more absolute respect for life (avihinsdye bhutánam análambhdyé pánánan).
23. It is doubtful how many characters are here missing. At first sight one would be inclined to read bahu[vidhant]; but the facsimile of the Corpus appears to have traces of a horizontal mark which hardly belong to anything but & +, so that an almost certain restitution would be bahu[káni), which has, however, the same meaning.
24. The construction here is extremely awkward; it exactly corresponds to a difficulty which has already been considered in the 11th (Rock) Edict; I refer to what I have said there (Vol. I. 245-47). If we had not this precedent, we should be tempted to take the accusative paripajantan as governed by the verbal idea contained in the substantive áladha. But in the other passage, neither the form karu at G., nor the pronoun 88 at Kh. and at K., allow us to have recourse to this. We must therefore take it here either as an accusative absolate (cf. Trenckner, Pali Miscellany, I. 67 note) equivalent to the nominative absolute, as I have concluded above, or take the spelling paipajarnta, as equivalent to patipajanté (cf. Edict IV. note 7; santan = santé, santah) and us consequently representing a nominative. I incline rather to the second solution.
25. At the time of the first facsimile, the correct reading "vasdb bisiténa was still distinct.
26. It is unnecessary to remark that ata represents yatra and not atra, and that it has its correlative in the tata following. Siláthasabháni vá siláphalakáni vd is in apposition to, and explains, dhanmalibi, and comes to this 'these edicts, whether they are carved on pillars, or inscribed on rocks.' We see, I may remark, here, in iyan dharmalibi, ésa chilathitiké, what confusion reigns in the use and application of the genders.
TRANSLATION. ML
Thus saith the King Piyadasi, dear anto the Devas :- Kings who ruled in the past did bave this wish,-How can we secure that men shall make progress in the Religion ? Bat men did not make progress in the Religion according to their desires). Now, thias saith the king Piyadasi, dear onto the Devas :-Thus have been my thoughts, --because kings who ruled in the past did have this wish,-how can we secure that men shall make progress in the Religion ? and because men did not make progress in the Religion according to their desires), by what means can I bring men to walk in the Good Way ? By what means can I secure that men shall make progress in the Religion according (to my desires] ? By what means can I cause them to advance in the Religion P Now, thus saith the king Piyadasi, dear unto the Devas :Thus have I resolved; I will spread abroad religious exhortations, and I will publish religious