________________
MAY, 1891.)
THE INSCRIPTIONS OF PIYADASI.
169
I combine in one the explanations of the two first, which only differ in the proper names used.
TEXT. Kittoe, J. A. S. B. 1847, pp. 412 and ff.; Burnouf, Lotus, pp. 779 and ff.
I.
(Sudamá Cave.) 1 LAjina piyadasinê duvadasavasabhisitênå 2 iyain nigohakub dinê adivikêmhi ()
II.
(Visra Cave.) 1 Lâjina piyadasina duva2 dasavasábhisitena iyam 3 kubbê khalatikapavatasi 4 dina Adivikémhi (.]
NOTES. I have only two brief observations to add to the remarks of Burnonf. The first refers to the year from which these inscriptions date. It is the thirteenth after the coronation of the king. These figures have their own interest. We have seen that, according to one of the Delhi Colomnar Edicts (cf. above, Sahasarâm, n. 2), this year was the first in which, according to his own evidence, the author of these inscriptions had religious teachings engraved; it is, to within a few months, the one which marks his active conversion to Buddhism. This coincidence, without being in itself decisive, affords at least one more presumption in favour of the conjecture, which at first attributed these inscriptions to our Asoka-Piyadasi.
The second remark concerns the word &diviké hr. I have no doubt that we should read, as in the better preserved inscriptions of Daśaratha, ddwikéhi. I take it, - not as an ablative, which would be unintelligible both here and in the other places where the word occurs, - not as representing a dative, we should in that case rather expect adivikúnarn, -- but as an instrumental, in the sense of the locative. In dealing with the Mahdoastu, I have had occasion to quote numerous instances of this peculiarity in the syntax of Buddhist Sanskrit (Mahávastu, I. 387, &c.) Burnouf has quite correctly recognised the base adivika as being the equivalent of djivika.
TRANSLATION This cave of the Nyagrôdha (II: - this cave situated on Mount Khalatika] has been given to religious mendicants by king Piyadasi, in the thirteenth year after his coronation.
III. (Karan Chaupár Cave.)
TEXT. 1 Laja piyadasi êkuneyim2 sativasâbhisitê nûmê thâ 3 adamathậtima iyam kubhâ 4 supiyê khalatipavata di. 5 nâ ()
NOTES. The new facsimile of the Corpus is a marked improvement on the first copy of Major Kittoe, which did not permit Burnouf to give a connected translation. Nevertheless, it must not be forgotten that, even according to General Cunningham, the rock is much defaced, and that
