Epigraphia Indica Vol 02

SR No.: 032556
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jas Burgess
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India
Publication Year: 1894
Total Pages: 596
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 19 MB

Page 312

PILLAR EDICTS OF ASOKA.
273
But the restrictive religious rules, indeed, are these, that I have ordered various kinds of creatures to be exempt from slaughter ; but there are also numerous other restrictive religious rules which I have imposed. But by deep meditation the growth of the sacred law has been increased more among men, so that they do not injure created beings, so that they do not slaughter living creatures."
For the following purpose these (orders) have been issued, (viz.) that they may last as long as my sons and great-grandsons reign", as long as moon and sun endure, and that men may act accordingly. If man obeys them in this manner, happiness has been gained both in this world and the next. I have caused this religious edict to be written after I had been anointed twenty-seven years.
Concerning this the Beloved of the gods speaks (thus):
“This religious edict must be incised there, where either stone pillars or stone tablets are found, in order that it may endure for a long time."
REMARKS ON THE TRANSLATION, (a) As the preceding clause states that the kings "conceived a wish," it is not possible to take kathan as an interrogative adverb. It must have the sense of an indefi. nite pronoun, just as káni has more frequently.
(1) Though it is perhaps not absolutely impossible to take etan with M. Senart as equivalent to itra or atra, I prefer to explain it by elad, and to assure that we have here the "accusative of relation," which, as Professor Delbrück has shown (Altindische, Syntax, p. 165f.), appears not rarely with verbs of speaking, wishing, considering and tho like.
(c) Abhyumnamayeham is the future with the meaning of the subjunctive (see Speijer, Sanskrit Syntax, p. 266f., and especially the quotation from the Rámáyana under b). E for i appears similarly in paridahessati, etc. (see E. Müller : Simplified Grammar of the Pali Language, p. 118).
(d) Abhyunnamisati may be either the future of the active abhyannamati, or, equivalent to abhyunnammissali, the future of the passive of the causative abhyunnamayati. The use of the active unnamati, abhyunnamati, pronnamati, and so forth, in the sense of 'to rise up,' is the usual one both in Sanskrit and in the Prakrits.
(e) Lajúka means literally 'a writer, clerk,' and denotes here probably a high official, taken from the writer caste (sce note 1 to my Gernan translation of Rock Edict III). Regarding the meaning of ayata note 2 to my German translation of ve Seps. Ed. I, Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, vol. XLI.
(f) Paliyovadátha is one of the few instances of the Vedic subjunctive, preserved in the old Prakrits of India (see Professor Pischel in Kuhn's Zeilschrift, vol. XXIII, p. 424, and Professor E. Müller, Simplified Grammar of the Pali Language, p. 108).
(g) Alhakosikyani corresponds to a Sanskrit urdhakroćikiyáni. The krosa or kos meant here, must be that equal to 8,000 Ilastas, or half a gavyúti, which thus corre. sponds to the so-called Sultoni kos of 3 English miles. The ordinary kos, equal to one and a lialf or one and three-quarter miles, cannot be meant, as the wells would come to close to each other.
See aluwe, Pillar Elict V.
Liet
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