________________
EPIGRAPHIA INDICA
[VOL. XXXI to the Chakravartins and we find it often applied to the Buddha. Asoka has no place in the Buddhist scriptures as a Chakravarlin. In his inscriptions he styles himself Devänäipriyah Priyadursi rūjā and not Dharmarāja. The present inscription similarly refers to rim as Rāja Asokasri.*
Some scholars are inclined to assign the inscription to a date about 100 A.D. I am, howover, of opinion that, on palacographical grounds, it is assignable to a period between the 2nd and the 1st century B.C.
Pali-English Dictionary, P. T. S., p. 174.
'[The word Chakravartin means 'an imperial ruler'. In the Buddhist works, Asoka is represented as a dvi pa-chakravartin, i.e., as the lord of the entire Jambu-dvipa. See Buddhaghosha's Samanta pasadika, P. T. S.. Vol. II, p. 309. The epithet Dharmaraja suits Maurya Aboka, called Dharmaboka, admirably. Indeed he was the ideal raja chakravarti dhármiko dharmarajah of Buddhist conception (of. P. T. S. Dictinoary, s.v. chakkarattin and dhammika).-Ed.)
The palaeography of the inscription has beon discussed by me in Proc. THC, 1953, pp. 79-80. [ In our opinion, the palaeography of the inscription points to a date not much carlier than the second century A.D. Although it is not quite easy to explain the purpose of this interesting record, it may not be impsible that an ancient tradition nscribing a Buddhist structure at Salihundem to Maurya Abhka was current in the locality and that this label referring to it was affixed at a later date.--Ed.)
