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ASOKA INSCRIPTIONS.
SEPTEMBER, 1876.]
nade de la loi est cette qu'il faut faire : ce sont la visite et l'aumône faites aux Brahmanes et aux Samanas, distribution de l'or [en leur faveur], l'inspection du peuple et du pays, l'injonction l'exécuter la loi, les interrogatoires sur la loi; ce sont là les moyens qui causent un extrême plaisir à Piyadasi, le roi chéri des Dêvas, dans cette période de temps, différente [de celle que l'a precédée]."
Professor Kern thus revises and translates it :1Atikâtam amtaram råjåno viharayâtam ñayâsu etamagavyam añânicha etârisâni abhiramakâni ahumsu; so Devânampiyo Piyadasi raja dasavasåbhisito samto ayâya sambodhim; 3 tena sa dhammayâtâ eta, yam hoti: bamhanasamananam dasanamcha dânamcha, thairânamn dasanamcha hiranapatividhanamcha janapadasacha janasa dasanam, dhammânusasṭicha dhammaparipuchhâcha. Tadopayá esa bhuya rati bhavati Devanampiyasa Piyadasino raño bhage amié.
In Sanskrit
Atikrânte 'ntare râjâno vihârayâtrân nirayâsishuh; etamṛiga yam anyânichaitâdrisâny abhirâmâny abhuvan. Tad Devânâmpriyah Priyadarsi råjå dasavarshâbhishiktas sann iyâya sambhodim ; tena så dharmayâtraita, yad bhavati: brâhmanasramapânâm darśanañcha dânañcha sthavirânâm darsanaficha Liranyapratividhânañicha, jânapadasyacha janasya darsanam, dharmânusâstiścha dharmaparipṛichchhâcha. Tadauparishțâd esha bhuyo ratir bhavati Devânâmpriyasya Priyadarsino rajno 'parabhâge.
Translation of No. VIII.
"In past times the kings went out on journeys of pleasure;§ stag-hunting|| and other such like recreations were in vogue. But king Devânâmpriya Priyadarsin, ten years after his inauguration, came to the true insight. Therefore he began a walk of righteousness, which consists in this, that he sees at his house, and bestows gifts upon Brâhmans and monks, he sees at his house, and presents elders with gold, he receives subjects of town and country, exhorts to righteousness and seeks righteousness. Since then this is the greatest pleasure of king Devanâmpriya Priyadarsin in the period after his conversion.
"In this little piece," adds Professor Kern, "there is only one expression which presents any difficulty in interpreting,-tadopayd in Girnår, and taddpeydle in Dhault, though the meaning may readily be conjectured. There must be something which
§ Dhault has-"The kings went out on so-called journeys of pleasure."
The impression in Dhault is more general, for mriga signifies not merely "stag, gazelle," but wild beast in general.
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is generally expressed in Sanskrit by tadaprabhṛiti; tadárabhya and such like upaddya, which the Buddhistic style, both Sanskrit and Pâli, so often employs, is not to be thought of. Tadupdddya, or also tadopadaya tadaprabhṛiti, signifying thenceforth,' since that; and if tadopayá was found only in Girnår it might perhaps be attributed to an error, but Kapurdigiri also has tadopayam, which deviates from tadopayá sufficiently to convince us that the readings support each other, and are therefore genuine. To what Sanskrit form, then, can the Prakrit correspond? In my opinion, to an ablative, auparyát, on the one hand, and to an adverbial accusative, auparyam, on the other. Auparya is derived regularly from upari, after, later.' Now since auparya becomes opaya in Prâkrit, just as karya becomes kayya, &c., tadopayá corresponds to a Sanskrit tadauparyât since that;'-or, if a form known otherwise be preferred, tadauparishtát. In the Dhauli text there is an entirely different word, a synonym of the foregoing,-peydle, which, after the example of the Lalitavistára, I have rendered in Sanskrit by preydlam. It will be in vain sought for in the dictionaries, though its existence had not escaped the notice of Burnouf in his widely extended investigations. He seems, however, not to have found it otherwise than in the Prakrit form preydla. After having remarked, in Lotus de la Bonne Loi, p. 388, that he had met with this peyala in a number of the writings of the northern Buddhists, he proceeds to say:
"Dans le textes pålis, la formule abbréviative comme ci-dessus est exprimée par le monosyllable pé qui est le commencement de péyyálam; car c'est ainsi qu'est orthographié ce mot en pâli. J'en trouve un example dans l' Atánáțiya sutta, qui est ainsi conçu: soyeva purimapéyyáléna vit thárétabhó, "il doit être développé avec le précédent peyyala." Je n'ai jusqu'à présent trouvé d'autre manière, d'expliquer ce mot que de supposer qu'il dérive de pé, abbréviation de púrvé, "précédemment," réuni à alam, "assez," de façon à exprimer cette idée, "la chose a été dite précédemment d'une manière suffisante." Je ne donne cependant encore cette explication que comme une conjecture.'
"We can pay no better tribute to the memory of the greatest Indologue of France, who shortly after writing the above words was snatched away from science, than to take up the inquiry at the point where he dropped it. Let it be observed, in the first place, that the brief clause quoted
Dhaul!"There existed for them stag-hunting, &o."
The play on the words viharayata and dhammayåtå is lost in the translation.
+ Dighanikaya, f. 177a.
