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AUGUST, 1891.)
THE INSCRIPTIONS OF PIYADASI.
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the sáravadhi. Piyadasi aims at the teaching of the dharama, dharmasa dipand (12th Ed.), and according to verse 363, the duty of the bhikshu is the same, atthain dharmañcha dipeti; the only true glory which he sees lies in the diffusion of the dharama (10th Ed.), and according to the Dhammapada (verse 24),-..... dhanmajivinó appamattassa yasó bhivaddhati ; it is in the dharima that he fixes happiness (Col. Ed. I., 9, &c.), and according to the 393rd verge of the Dhammapada - yamhi sachchan cha dhammo cha só sukhi...
To the king, happiness is both happiness in this world and in the world to come. It is the very formula of reward which he anweariedly promises; it is found no less often in the Lhammapada, verses 16, 132, 168, 177.
The spirit of tolerance shown by the king is not itself altogether unknown to the canonical book. Not only does verge 5 in a general way recommend mercy and the forgetting of hatreds, but, far from treating the Brâhman and Brahmaņism as enemies, it puts the name in close connection with that of the bhikshu: -
Santô dantô niyatô brahmachari sabbêsa bhûtêsu nidhaya dandam
so brahmanô số samanô la Bhikkhu (verse 142). By the side of the Bhikkhuvagga, it devotes a whole chapter to exalting, under the name of • the brahmana, perfection such as it conceives it, while at the same time it does not forget that the
brúhmana is the representative of a different cult (verse 392). The author does not violently denounce this cult, bat, as Piyadasi does with regard to ceremonies (maingala), he proclaims its inutility (verses 106-107). Finally, he compares the sámaññata and the brahmaññatá, the quality of the éramana, and the quality of the brahmana (verses 332), just as the king himselt associates brahmanas and dramanas.
These comparisons are far from exhausting the number of possible points of contact, nor cau they give one that general impression which has also considerable value, and which can only result from a parallel study of the two texts. Such as they are, they appear to me to be of a nature to justify an important conclusion: that the ideas and the language which are brought to light, from a religious point of view, in our inscriptions, cannot be considered as an isolated expression of individual convictions or conceptions. A book of canonical repute lays before us an equivalent sufficiently exact to allow us to consider that they correspond to a certain state of Buddhism, earlier than that which has found expression in the majority of the books which have come down to us, - that they correspond to a certain stage in the chronological development of the religion of Säkya.
It thus happens that certain indications appear to be of a nature to connect Piyadasi and the Dhammapada.
We are so accustomed to see Indian kings carrying several different names, that the double nomenclature of Piyadasi and Aboka need not surprise us. It would still, however, be interesting to discover its reason; the more so as the word Aboka is not, either by its meaning or by frequent use, one of those which would appear suited to be used as a surname. We have seen, on the authority of the Sinhalese chronicle, that Asöka at the time of his conversion took the name of DhammasôkaIt is probable that his real name was Priyadarsin, for that is the only one which he applies to himself, and we are thus led to conclude that the king took only at his conversion the name of ABóka or Dharma soka, though he judged it to be inopportune to employ it in his monuments, as he would thus cause in the middle of his reign a very consider. able change in the protocols of his chancery. But, on the other hand, this name, naturally dear to the Buddhists whose triumph it commemorated and of which it was the sign, became so established in their memory, that it threw into the shade the one that the king bore in his first years before his conversion, which the literary tradition paints in such sombre colours. This conjectare, which appears to explain sufficiently the facts under consideration, 'has been suggested to me by two classes of passages which I quote from the Dhammapada. The word bóka, grief,' is
