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OCTOBER, 1905.)
ASOKA NOTES.
247
"Piyadasi, and a connection is established between it and what follows. For Piyadasi here "speaks of having made two provident arrangements, i. e., provident arrangements for two " classes of creatures - men and animals. And what are these? They are obviously the "planting of medicinal herbs, the growing of orchards, the sinking of wells, and so forth. By “this way of intrepretation alone the edict attains its full significance."
Mr. Bhandarkar's translation provident arrangements' is, perhaps, nearer to Professor Kern's system of caring for the sick' than it is to either of the rival interpretations proposed by Bähler and M. Senart. But it is open to the criticism that chikitsa undoubtedly means 'curing,' 'chikitsaka' means a physician,' and chikitsita' means physic. No version can be satisfactory which excludes the idea of ouring' or
healing.' Nor can I see any force in the assumed necessity of interpreting chikichha as & generic term comprehending the sinking of wells, and all the other acts of beneficence enumerated in the edict.
Nothing in either the grammatical construction or the context compels such an interpretation. The Sanskrit stem chikitsa undoubtedly oxpresses the idea of healing' or 'caring,' and there seems to be no reason to attribute any other meaning to the phonetic equivalents in Pråksit. Mr. Bhandarkar fails to cite any authority justifying the translation of chikichha by the words provident arrangement' or 'provision,' and, I think, would find a difficulty in quoting Any passage to support his rendering. For these reasons I am unable to accept his interpretation, and am obliged to consider how to provide a formula free from objection.
If the Kälsi variant chikisaká had been adopted in all the texts, there would be no difficulty, because that would naturally be translated physicians. But the shorter forms chikichha and chikisa (chikind) cannot very well mean physicians,' and, inasmuch as the variants must all mean the same thing, another translation must be adopted. There is, of course, no objection to treating ohikisaka as morely an amplified form of ohikisa. Some phrase such es
curative arrangements' seems to satisfy the conditions. Those arrangements would include the provision of physicians, surgeons, and veterinary surgeons, as well as the erection of hospitals, and the supply of drugs and invalid diet. The proposed rendering will cover the meaning of all the three versions proposed by Kern, Bühler, and Senart, and at the same time preserve the ordinary sense of the stem chikitsa. I take it that the term chikichha in the edict was intended to comprise the arrangements for importing or planting medicinal herbs and roots which are recited next in order, but that the term was not intended to comprise the planting of road-side trees and the digging of wells, which are mentioned in the concluding sentence. That sentence, which opens emphatically with the word panthésú (Girnar), or magêsu (Kalsi). is to be read as a supplement to the record concerning curative arrangements,' and is intended to record the provisions made on the roads' for the comfort of man and beast, as being connected with, although distinct from, the arrangements for curing both classes of creatures when afflicted with disease.
Fa-hien's description of the Free General Hospital at Pataliputra in 400 A. D. seems to me to give an exact and complete interpretation of the term chiktohha in the ediot, so far as human beings were concerned.
"Hither come," we are told, "all poor or helpless patients suffering from all kinds of infirmities. They are well taken care of, and a doctor attends them; food and medicine being sapplied according to their wants. Thus they are made quite comfortable, and when they are well, they may go away." (Travels, Ch. XXVII., Giles.)
The objection to the translation hospitals' is more formal than substantial, because a well. equipped hospital includes a supply of drugs and all necessary curative arrangements; but the more general torm is preferable as comprehending all the measures taken by Aboka's
