________________
SEPTEMBER, 1876.]
ASOKA INSCRIPTIONS.
275
submitted to iny judicial decision I wish to have investigated; I convince myself of the guilt of the perpetrators, and I act myself according to a steadfast principle. The prin. ciple on which I place the highest value in these is conımunicated to you in this instruction. Because ye are placed over many thousands of souls among the people, and over the whole number of the good. Every good man is a child to me; as for a child, I wish that theyt may be blessed with everything which is useful and pleasant for this world and hereafter.
No. XIV. of Girnar. The last of the edicts is engraved to the right of the thirteenth, and is in five and a half lines. It reads thus :
Ayam dharmalipi Devânampiyena Piyadasina rAnA lekhapita asti eva' sankhitena asti majhamena asti vistatana nâcha savam savata ghatitam • mahalakepi vijitam bahucha likhitan likhåpayisanchema asticha etakampunapunavutam tasa. tasa athasa madharitâya kimti jano tatbâ patipajethatata ekada asamâtar likhitam asamdesam va sachhayakaranarn va alocheptá lipikarâparadhena vas
Professor Kern's revised reading of the text is as follows:
Ayam dhari malipi Devånampiyena Piyadasina rina lekhápitâ ; asti eva samkhitena, asti majha. mena, asti vistatena, nocha savam savata ghatitam; • mahälakamhi vijitam, bahucha likhitam likhâpayisam... Asticha etakam punapunavutam tasa-tasa athasa madhuriya (or madharat@ya); kiinti? jano tathå pațipajetha. Tata ekad& asa- matar likhitam asadisam và sachhayakaranar va • alocheptâ lipikaraparadhena vå.
In Sanskrit :
Iyam dharmalipir Devânampriyena Priyadarsina rajna lekhita; asty eva sankshepato 'sti madhyamam asti vistârena, nacha sarvan sarvatra ghatitam; mabaddhi râshtram bahucha likhitam alilikham. Asticha, tâvat, punaḥ punaruktam, tasyatasyarthasya madhuryat; kimiti ? janas 'tatha pratipadyeteti Tattad ekadasamâptan likhitam
asadsisam vå, sachchhâyopekshaya va lipikarâparadhena vå.
Translation of No. XIV. of Girnar. King Devân âmpriya Priyadarsin has caused this righteousness-edict to be written, here concisely, there in moderate compass, in a third place again at full length, so that it is not found altogether everywhere worked out ; (?) for the kingdom is great, and what I have caused to be written much. Repetitions occur also, in a certain measure, on account of the sweetness of various points, in order that the people should in that way (the more willingly) receive it. If sometimes the one or other is written incompletely or not in order, it is because care has not been taken to make a good transcript|l, or by the fault of the copyist (i.e. the stone-cutter).
Professor Kern thus concludes :-The edicts introduced into this treatise give an idea of what the king did for his subjects in his wide empire, which extended from Behår to GÂn. dhára, from the Himalaya to the coast of Coro. mandel and Pandyal. They are not unim. portant for the criticism of the Buddhistio traditions, though they give us exceedingly little concerning the condition of the doctrine and its adherents. The prince went over to Buddhism in the eleventh year of his reign. He was a zealous Buddhist who concerned. himself with the spiritual interest, and even with the catechism, of his co-religionists. At fitting time and place, he makes mention, in a modest and becoming manner, of the doctrine which he had embraced; but nothing of a Buddhist spirit can be discovered in his state policy. From the very beginning of his reign he was a good prince. His ordinances concerning the sparing of animal life agree much more closely with the ideas of the heretical Jainas than those of the Buddhists.
Although, then, the inscriptions of Asoka
+ Deáram, properly "entrance," is not only uplya abhyupd ya, as the native lexicographers periphrase it, but also rydya, "principle, fandamental eleinent, axiom, method."
Thus (e.g.) when in the Panchatantra, 166, 17, it is said dharmasastradudrendsmakam nimayh dehi, that means "give sentence according to the principles pertaining to jurisprudence." It is true that the proper meaning of nydyt itself is also "entrance."
I "They," in the plural, on account of the plural idea in the collective "every."
$ The new readings in the estampage are:-In line 2 sa wata for pavata; in line 4 kinti for kiti ; in line 5 asandesam for asadeśam.
Sanskrit chhaya "transcript, copy," is wanting in the dictionaries, the word is well known to the paruits, and occurs also in the Bombay editions of Sanskrit dramas.
In one part of No. V.. which is equally corrupt in all the three redactions, he names, as the extreme (Western) por tions of his kingdom-in Girnar, "Yona-Kam bolja) - Gamdharanam Ristika-Petenik Anamn": in Dhauli Yana-Kambocha-Gamdhalesu, L. thika - Pitenikesu." Except the last name, this can easily be restored, in Girnar "Yona-KambojaGard hårdnan Rastika - Petenik na in." These names have been already explained correctly by Prof. Lassen, with perhaps the exception of the last. See Ind. Alt. (2nd ed.) 137 r. II. 251.
