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NOVEMBER, 1888.]
THE INSCRIPTIONS OF PIYADASI.
305
The neighbourhood of the epithets ukasá and kingdom, should expressly mention, after the majhima proves that the word should be taken, officials of all ranks of the interior, those whose not in its etymological, but in its secondary sense actions extended beyond (cf. Dh. IInd det. ed.) of low, inferior, lowest.' Analogous examples Nevertheless, I have some doubts about this. will be found in the distionaries, and I add the The XIIth edict speaks positively of mahámátras passage of the Lal. Vist. (540, 10), where grámya charged with the oversight of women, and, is, in this sense, placed between hina and pár- according to the Vth, the dharmamahámátras thagjanika. Regarding anuvidhiyanti, cf. I. 232. had to busy themselves with the domestic affairs
5. There can be no question of dividing the of all the members of the royal family. If we sentence before alari, nor is it necessary to only changed anta into arité, and the correction change samádapayitavé, as proposed by Bur- is an easy one, we should find an allusion to nouf. Samádapêti is in Buddhist language these domestic officials.' The agreement of all used in the sense of 'to convert ;' the infini- the versions in reading ta nevertheless compels tive is governed by alan, and the whole phrase me to decide in favour of the first interpretation. forms a development explanatory of sampați- 6. The phrase ya iyasi occurs again in the pádayanti. From the well-established use of VIIIth edict, 1. 7, in the same meaning, i..e. this verb, it follows that chapalah cannot be as equivalent to the Pali phrase yad idan 'to taken as an abstract neuter. It must designate wit.' Although iyani is often employed in our collectively men who are thoughtless, easily inscriptions as a neuter, I do not think that we lead away (cf. Dhammap. V. 33; chapalan are obliged to take yá iyain as actually identical chittari). It is possible that anuvidhiyasiti and with yad idan. In the two places where it sampațrpádayanti have as an object anusathin, occurs, the first substantive which follows the understood from the anusathiyd of the preced. pronoun is feminine, here pálaná, below daya, ing sentence; but we shall see below, especially with which it perhaps agrees. It is more in the detached edicts of Dhauli and of Jau- difficult to fix with the necessary accuracy, the gada, saripațipadayati or patipadayati employed precise shade of meaning of the word vidhi. absolutely; so also we shall find the phrase The word "règle' (rule) appears to be the dharmánupațipattin anupatipajati (below, most exact equivalent in French. This transVIII. 3), but more usually paripajati or san- lation agrees well with the sense properly given patipajati used absolutely. Hence, the transla- by Burnouf to the vidhána which follows. tions to be, to walk in the good way,' and for To sum up, here is the translation which I the causal,"to place, to cause to walk in propose : the good way' appear to me to be those which
TRANSLATION. best render the exact meaning of the verb. Thus saith the king Piyadasi, dear unto the As regards hémêvá, i.e. évam éva, which we Dêvas :-In the twenty-seventh year from my meet subsequently in other edicts and also coronation did I have this edict engraved. in the detached edicts of Dh. and J., cf. Héma- Happiness in this world and in the next is chandra, Ed. Pischel, I. 271. The parallel difficult to provide, without on the part of my versions prohibit us from supposing, with Bar- officials) an extreme zeal for the Religion, a nouf, that anything is missing from the end of strict oversight, an extreme obedience, a very the line, to be completed as ainta (masó]; lively sense of responsibility, an extreme moreover this word would not suit the sense activity. But, owing to my instructions this care The text is certainly complete here, but this of the Religion and this zeal for the Religion certainty does not relieve us of any difficulty increase and will increase (among them) from If we consider the reading as entirely correct, day to day. And my officials, superiors, subwe must consider antamahámátá as a compound alterns, and those of middle rank, themselves signifying officials stationed at the frontiers; conform to and also direct (the people in the and, as a matter of fact, the Vth of the Four-Good Way, so as to keep steadfast the fickleteen Edicts tells us of mahámátras charged with minded; so also, the overseers of the frontier the duty of watching the border-populations. It countries. Now the rule is this; government is also natural that Piyadasi, always intent on by the Religion, law by the Religion, progress extending his charitable cares beyond his own by the Religion, security by the Religion.
