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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[AUGUST, 1891.
acceptation had become fixed in the time of Piyadasi, nor that, in those days, even in the formula buddha, dharma, sangha, the word had any other signification than the moral law.' From this point of view, the literature accepted as orthodox offers us, in a work recognised as one of the most ancient, instructive parallels, and I am surprised that writers have not before this thought of comparing our inscriptions with the language of the Pali Dhammapada.
Taking first the use of the word dhaima, the Dhammapada, like our texts, uses it in the entirely Buddhist formula of the trišarana (verse 190). At the same time, the epithets by which it is usually accompanied, - ariyappavedita (v. 79), sammadaklchata (v. 86), uttama (v. 115), summásaibuddhadé sita (v. 392), - clearly show that it is not yet crystallized into a narrow and technical acceptation. We may also form a judgment from verses 256 and ff., where the word is applied exactly as Piyadasi might have done, and from verse 393, which is so entirely in the tone of our monuments : - yamhi sachcham cha dhammo cha sổ sukhỉ số cha brâ hmaņô.
The meaning is still more generalised in passages like verses 167-169, and in the cases in which the word is employed in the plural, as in verses 1, 82, 273, 278-279, 384. Saddharma serves inore especially to designate the Buddhist law (verses 60,182); but, we may judge from verse 364 how far the two words dhainma and saddharima are mixed up and confounded : -
Dhammiramo, dhammarato, dhammar anuvichintayari
dhammam anussaram bhikkhu saddhamma na parihaya Verse 183,
Sabbapåpassa a karanam kusalassa upasampadå
sachittapariyôdapanam: êtam buddhana sâsanam, cannot fail to remind us of the passage in the 2nd Col. Ed., in which Piyadasi defines the dhamma, - apasinavé bahukayáné, &c.
The general tone and the main points of the moral teaching present in the two cases the most evident analogies. I can only quote a few examples. The king again and again dwells upon the necessity of persevering efforts to advance in moral life (Ed. VI, X, &c.), with an insistence which is quite equalled by that of the Dhammapada. It will suffice to refer to the chapter on appanáda (verses 21 and ff.). Compare (verses 7, 116, &c.). I cite again verse 23, in which the epithet da! haparakkama recalls the word parákrama employed by the king with such visible preference; also verses 24, 168, 280, to show a use of the base utthá parallel to that which we find in our inscriptions (G. VI, 9 and 10, and perhaps, J., Det. Ed., I, 7); finally verse 163, in which the remark sukaráni asádhúni is an exact fellow of the ideas expressed in our 5th edict. Both authorities incalcate the necessity of self-examination (Dhammap., verse 50 ; Col. Ed. III) regard for all, and in particular respect to the aged (Dhammap., verse 109; Ed. IV, V, IX, &c.) and moderation in language (Dhammap., verse 133, Ed. III., XII). Verse 234, which makes truthfulness, mercy, charity the three cardinal virtues, can be compared with the two passages of the 2nd, and of the 7th-8th Columnar edicts, which bring together the same triad of sache dayá, dáné. While the king recommends ahi sá and abolishes the use of animal flesh at his table, the Dhammapada exalts the ahinsalea muni (v. 225) and recommends a strict temperance (v. 7, al.)
The most striking coincidences are perhaps those which deal with details of form. The formula frequently used by the king, - sådhu dánaia, &c., - is found also in the Dhammapada, verse 35, chittassa damatho sadhu; verse 360, chakkhuná sainvari sádhu, &c. With the 9th and 11th edicts compare verse 354 sabbadánari dhammadána jináti, &c.; with the frequent use of the base árádh, the expression of verse 281, arddhayé maggan; with the phrase dhanman nuvaftati, the dhanmanuvatting of verse 86; with dhanmadhithànó at Dhauli (verse 26), dhainmatiha of verses 217, 256 and ff.; with dhaimarati at Kh. and K. (XIII. 16 and 12 cf. the end of the 8th edict), the recommendation of verse 88, tatrå(scil, dhammé)bhirati ichchhéya.
The verses 11-12, -asáré sdramatinô sáré cha asáradassing, 80., - at least bear witness to a use of the word sära extremely analogous to that which we find in the 12th edict, à propos of
