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SOURCES FOR HISTORY OF KHĀRAVELA
241
pilgrims of the Kumāri hill. Thus in one important respect, the Hāthigumphā record of Khāravela differs from the Edicts of Asoka and the Dialogues of the Buddha, namely, that in it one misses the personal touches of the personage in whose name it stands. Both the Edicts of Asoka and the Dialogues of the Buddha make one feel as though their texts were written to dictation by some reporters and were afterwards edited by certain agents with slight changes here and there, either in the soundsystem or in the expressions. Explanations were also required for repetitions, and certain ommissions, errors and irregularities in the Edicts of Asoka (cf. statements in RE XIV). But in the case of Khāravela's edict, the composition of its text is free from all such defects and is bright with numerous qualities."
Most of the historicity of ancient and mediaeval kings is derived from their eulogies, which fill so large a proportion of the inscriptions which have come down to our time. These compositions are the works of grateful beneficiaries or court-poets, whose object was rather to glorify their royal patron than to hand down to posterity an accurate account of the events of his reign. It is evident that in them successes are often grossly exaggerated, while reverses are passed over in complete silence,
1. Barua (OBI, pp. 179-80) has enumorated the general method of the editorial agents in ancient India, ag.
(a) the use of devanain piye piyadasi lajā hevain äha or a similar
set clause as a literary device for paragraphic divisions ; (b) the conversion of a direct narration into an indirect one by
substituting devinampiye for lūjā; devānam piyena piyadasina lijini for me, mnya and mamaya; • and devänampiyasa piyadasino lajino for me and mama, precisely in the same way as in the Dialogues of the Buddha Tathagato is substituted for ahain, tathāgat ena for me, maya and Tathāgatassa for mi and mama. 31
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