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SEPTEMBER, 1903.)
ASOKA NOTES.
365
II. - The Dharma mahamåtras, or Censors of the Law of Pioty. Since the publication of my book I have come across two examples from modern India of the maintenance of officials charged with duties similar to those of Asoka's Censors.
Minayeff (Recherches, p. 279) quotes the Calcutta Review for 1851, Vol. XV., P. IXV, as authority for the statement that "hereditary Brahmin officers called Dharmadhikari, are still to be found throughout the Deccan, in Kandesh, and even in some parts of the Concan ... Their jurisdiction merely comprises breaches of rules of caste, for which they levy fines, or order penance, or even proceed to excommunication."
The second example, from Kasmir, is very closely parallel to Aska's institution. In 1876, when & strictly Hindu government was in full possession of power, "the performance of the prayasclettas, or penalties for breaches of the commandments of the Smriti, is,” according to Bühler, "looked after by the Government. The Maharaja himself, who is a sincere and zealous adherent of the faith of his forefathers, sees that Brahminical offenders expiate their sins in the manner provided by the Sastras. The exact nature and amount of the penances is settled by five Dharmadhikaris, who belong to the most respected families among the Sanskrit-learning Pandits. The office is hereditary in these families."
These statements help us to understand and realize the working of Aśôka's institutions designed for the regulation of public morals.
III.-ABóka's Father-Confessor, According to the Ceylonese chronicles, followed by most writers on Buddhism, the religious guide of the emperor Asoka was Tissa (Tishya) Moggalipatra (Mandgalyiputra).
According to the Indian tradition he was Upagopta, i. e., Gupta the Less, son of Goptn, a perfomer. Both statements cannot be correct. In my book I have drawn attention to the similarities between the stories told by the Ceylonese about Tissa, and those related by the Indian (including Tibetan) writers about Upagupta, but I could not examine the matter fully in a small popular work. Lt.-Colonel Waddell has proved conclusively, as I think, that the Tisss of the Ceylonese is the Upagupts of Indian tradition. The parallel passages from the Asôkdvardána and the Mahávarsa which he has laboriously copied and set out side by side permit of no doubt that the two personages are really one.
He suggests that the name of the saint in the Ceylonese tale may be "merely a title of Upagupta, and formed possibly by fusing the names of the two chief disciples of the Buddha, Maudgalyi-putra, and Upatisya (or Çäriputra), to bring him, as the great patron saint of Ceylon, as near as possible to Çākya Muni himself."
This suggestion seems plausible.
With reference to the story of Mahendra I have shown that when the Indian and Ceylonese traditions conflict, the presumption is all in favour of the version which was current at the site of Asoka's capital. The same argument applies to this case. The presumption is that Upagupta was the real name of ABóka's father-confessor, and that the Ceylonese designation for him was made up for some reason such as that suggested by Lt. Col. Waddell. The only fact which seems to stand in the way of accepting the suggested explanation is the occurrence among the inscriptions on the sanchi relic-caskets of the mention of an unnamed saint, the son of Moggali. The alphabetical characters suggest that if this person was not contemporary with Asoka, his relics, at least, were deposited in or about Asoka's time. Moreover, the
• Bohler, Report of a Tour, etc., in J. Bo. Br. R. 4. 8. (1876), Vol. XII., Extra No., p. 21.
8 "Upacapta, the Fourth Buddhist Patriarch, and High Priest of Asoka" (J. 4. S. B. Part I., 1897, p. 76); Proc. 4. 8. B., June, 1899, p. 70.
