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ADMINISTRATION OF KALINGA
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equally anxious to set them moving on the path of piety in order that they may obtain happiness in this world and in the next. They are distinctly bidden to turn from their evil ways so that they may not be chastised. In fact, freedom of these people was conditioned on morality. These people were to be told over and over again that the King was to them even as a father, loving them as he loves himself. A message in writing would reach only a small proportion of the people. Therefore a command was given that the Edicts may be recited at the beginning of each of the three seasons-hot, wet and cool; at a certain stage of the moon; and even at any time suitable. Those literate would naturally read the Edicts themselves and follow them, but not so in the case of illiterate population, which, it may be presumed, formed a majority. And, it is for these people that the Emperor made adequate arrangements for reading out the Edicts and insisted upon their following the Law of Piety, so virtuously enunciated by him.
The Rock Edicts do not, it may be confesssed, enlighten us on the particular names of the wild tribes who formed the subject of Asoka's favour. Nevertheless, it may be judged from various other evidences. In the Purāņas, the Ațavyas are mentioned side by side with the Pulindas, Vindhya-múliyas and Vaidarbhas. And, one Copper Plate Grant describes Hastin, a Parivrājaka king, as master of the Dabhālā kingdom 'together with eighteen forest kingdoms (Ațavi-rājya)."" Dabhālā, according to D. R. Bhandarkar," must be the older form of Dahālā,
1. The Purāņas (Brahmānda, II, 18, 50; 31, 83; Matsya, 121, 45; Cf. also Hultzsch, p. xxxix) however know of a land of the Paradas in Eastern India, watered by the Ganges and noted for its horses. Otd. K. A. N. Sastri, Nandas and Mauryas, p. 223, fn. 2.
2. Gupta Ings, p. 114. Qtd. Bhandarkar, Asoka, p. 47, 3. Asoka, p. 48.
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