Epigraphia Indica Vol 34

Author(s): D C Sircar
Publisher: Archaeological Survey of India

Page 26

No. 1]
GRAECO-ARAMAIC INSCRIPTION OF ASOKA NEAR KANDAHAR
have supported the contrary opinion. As in Pillar Edict V Asoka says: "Until (I had been) anointed 26 years, in this period, the release of prisoners was ordered by me 25 (times)," it has been surmised that the years were current ones.1 Dr. P. H. L. Eggermont, the author of the most elaborate study of the chronology of Asoka, has also adopted the same view. Nevertheless the argument is by no means conclusive, since Asoka does not say whether he decided to release prisoners once every year from the very beginning of his reign and he may not have begun to do so before his conversion to Buddhism after the conquest of Kalinga. Moreover, such adjectival expressions as dasa-vas. abhisito qualifying rājā (cf. Rock Edict VIII) ought to be understood as 'being anointed ten years and not 'nine complete years and one part of a year' which would mean 'the tenth year since his anointment'. In any case, we have, in the explicit statement of the Greek epigraph under study. a very strong testimony against the interpretation of the years referred to in Asoka's Prakrit inscriptions as current ones.
5
Greek EUSEBEIA, eu'sebeia 'piety', and Aramaic qshy!', 'truth', are evidently tentative renderings of the more comprehensive Prakrit word dhamma (Sanskrit dharma), or, according to the spelling of the north-western edicts, dhiama, which is the right Order to be devotedly sought for.
The Aramaic name of the king is restored by Prof. Levi della Vida as Priyadars and by Prof. Dupont-Sommer as Priyadarsi. In the defective Aramaic writing, the reading of the text is prydrsh. But, in the Indo-Aramaic or Kharoshṭhi system of writing which is much more precise than the Aramaic owing to the influence of the phonetic system of the Brahmi, the spelling is priyadrasi, or priyadrasin or priadrasi, and we have to prefer the restoration Priyadrati. Priyadarsin is the correct corresponding form in Sanskrit.
Like Rock Edict IV, the bilingual inscription is an announcement of a new and more prosperous era resulting from the establishment of the same new behaviour: cessation of killing living beings and obedience to mother, father and elders. The corresponding passage in Rock Edict IV in the Shahbazgarhi version runs as follows: anarambho praṇanam avihisa bhutanam hatinam sampatipati Bramana-Sramanana sampaṭipati mata-pitushu vudhanam suérusha, 'not killing animals, not injuring living beings, good behaviour towards relatives, good behaviour towards the Brahmanas and the Sramanas, obedience to mother and father and elders'. In the Graeco-Aramaic inscription, the Brahmanas and Śramanas are not mentioned, since they were not inhabiting the land of the Greeks as Asoka bimself bas pointed out in Rock Edict XIII. The good behaviour towards relativer is naturally included in the general prescriptions.
Generally, Greek AKRASIA, a'krasia means 'intemperance', as translated by Carratelli who surmises that the original referred to samyama. He is supported by Lamotte who draws our attention to Rock Edict IX; pranaram ca[m*lyamo, 'refraining from (the eating of) animals', and thinks of 'abstinence' or 'sobriety'. The meaning may be more comprehensive, like 'self-control', after the interpretation of Schlumberger and Rcbert, which would also tally with the idea of samyama. In Rock Edict XIII, Asoka declares that he wanted 'for all living beings absence of injury, control, equanimous conduct' (Shahbazgarhi savra-bhutana akshati sa[m]yamam samacharjyam). And immediately afterwards, he refers to the dhrama-vijayo, 'victory through the good Order', won by
1 Cf. R. K. Mookerji, Asoka, London, 1928, p. 184.
The Chronology of the Reign of Aboka Moriya, Leiden, 1956, p. 64. According to Prof. Lamotte (op. cit., p. 236), in the chronological data of the Singhalese chronicles, the years are current and not expired. He refers to the Mahavamsa, XX, 1-6, where they are clearly current and this is confirmed by the Vamsatthapakasini commenting upon the passage in question. But the way the years are indicated is quite different in this text (affharasuks vassamki Dhammasokasta... tato dvadasame vasse, 'in the eighteenth year... in the twelfth year') from that of Asoka's inscriptions (of. duvadaéa-vach-abhisitena).
Cf. J. Filliozat in Charles Fossey's Notices sur les caractères étrangers, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 2nd ed., 1948, p. 236; L. Renou and J. Filliozat I'Inde classique: Manuel des études indiennes, Tome II, Paris, 1953, p. 669. Both the i-stem and the in-stem are in use as we have in the genitive case priyadratisa and priyadrahne.