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EPIGRAPHIA INDICA.
VOLUME V.
No. 1.- THE ASOKA EDICTS OF PADERIA AND NIGLIVA.
By G. BÜHLER, PA.D., LL.D., C.I.E. MHE two new Asöks edicts of Paderia and Nigliva are edited here according to inked
1 estampages, furnished by their discoverer, Dr. A. A. Führer, who found the second in March 1895 and the first in December 1896. Both come from the Nepal Terai, where Nigllva is situated 38 miles north-west of the Uska Basar station of the Bengal and North-Western Railway, in the Nepalese tahsil Taulihvd of the sillah Butaul. Paderia lins two miles north of the Nepalese tahsil Bhagvånpur of the same sillah, and according to Dr. Führer's estimate about thirteen miles from Nigliva. Both are incised on mutilated stone pillars, and the Padêria ediot, which was found three feet below the surface of the ground, is in a state of perfect preservation, while that of Nigliva has suffered a great deal on the left side and has lost the first five letters of line 3 as well as the first seven of line 4.
The characters of the two edicts agree exactly with those of the north-eastern pillar edicts of Radhia, Mathis and RampQrva. And their language is the Magadhl of the third century B.O., which is found also in the other pillar-ediota, in the Kalsi, Dhauli and Jangada versions of the rock-edicts, in the two Bairåt and the Sahaaram edicts, in the cave-inscriptions of Barabar, and in the Sôhgaurd copper-plate, and which may be recognised by the invariable substitution of la for ra and of na for pa, by the nominatives singalar in and by the word hida for idha. A peculiarity which re-occurs only in the north-eastern pillar-adiota, is the comparatively frequent shortening of final d in piyadasina, ldjina, atana and kalapita. New words and forms, not found in the other Asoka edicts, are afhabhagiye (Paderia, 1. 8), dgacha (Paderia, 1. 2; Nigliya, 1. 3), ubaliko (Paddria, 1. 4), wapdpita (Paderia, 1. 3; Nigliva, 1. 4), Bhagavar (Paderia, 1. 4), mahiyite (Paderia, 1. 2; Nigliva, 1.3) and vigadabhi (Padarin, 1. 3), to which may be added the names of Kondkamana (Nigliva, 1, 2), Luihminigdma (Paderis, 1. 4) and Sakyamuni (Padêria, 1. 2). The wording of the two insoriptions agrees very closely, and leaves no doubt that they were incised at the same time. It makes also the restoration of the lost portions of the Nigliva edict easy and absolutely certain.
See Dr. Führer's Annual Progress Report for 1894-95, paragraph 8.
• I take this and all other details about the localities from a memorandum, kindly tarnlabed to me by Dr. Fabror. • Ep. Ind. Vol. II. p. 245 .
• See below, p. 6, notes 1 and .
