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124
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[MAY, 1907.
Yet on this frail basis Dr. Fleet would build an entire chronological edifice. In our inscription, which, moreover, does not mark the long vowel - (I have already stated what should be thought of this omission),-sakiya would still be taken in its original sense ; (569) the inscription must, therefore, be anterior, by at least a full century, to that on the pillar of Asöka at Rummindēi (the middle of the 3rd century B. C.), in wbich the notation of the long vowel is established and in which the designation of the Buddha as Sakyamuns," the hermit of the Säkyas," shows that the possessive adjective bas had time to change into an ethnical term. The inscription would, therefore, be far more ancient than any yet found in India. Dr. Fleet does not venture, positively, any further than about half way between the reign of Asöka and the date generally accepted for the death of the Buddha : for he is too experienced an epigraphist to carry back this writing, without more ado, to the very time of the nirvana. Yet he allows us to perform the rest of the journey at our own risk. On the other hand, he does not disguise bis hope that, thanks to the light the document has now thrown on the true history of the name of the Sākyas, a methodical investigation into the use of the various forms of this name may lead to important results in connection with the chronology of the books of the Pali canon. We may wish that such an investigation may be made ; but we mast give a warning against too hasty conclusions being drawn from it.
One word still as to the construction proposed by Dr. Fleet. I have already referred to the strangeness of it; I must add that this, but not the other anomalies of the redaction, would be more or less attenuated if the inscription were in verse. Now, quite recentlyas Mr. Thomas thought he actually recognised in it a very irregular Arya stanga, which Dr. Fleet afterwards proposed to scan as an Upagiti (or Udgīti] almost as irregular. It is always difficult to recognise an isolated Argå, especially when it presents anomalies as great as would be the case here. But the fact is that in Pāli and mixed Sanskřit some are found which are hardly better, and that, if such a one were met with among the verses of the Thërigathās, for example, to which Mr. Thomas refers, it would really have to be accepted as an Arya. It is true that, in that case, there would remain the expedient, which we have not here, of suspecting the manuscript tradition. Without believing it very probable, I will, therefore, not absolutely reject the suggestion ; but I wish to point out that it would in no way prejudice the meaning to be given to the word sakiyanan. Whether the latter really corresponds to a Sanskpit Sakya or to a Sanskrit svakiya, it would still have its first syllable short; for, long ago Professor Jacobi bas shown that, if Pāli and Präksit necessarily shorten the vowel in position, Pali often and Prākļit still oftener do not restoro the long quantity when position has been removed.
(664) In conclusion, I therefore believe, with M. Senart, with whom I am happy to be in entire agreement, that we may admit the following as a definitive translation of our inscription :
"This receptacle of relics of the blessed Baddha of the Säkyas (is the pious gift) of the brothers of Sukirti, jointly with their sisters, with their sons and their wives."
In short, we must be resigned: the inscription teaches us none of the sensational novelties that some interpreters have thought they found in it; it does not afford us any testimony contemporary with the Buddha, whom it leaves in his vague and legendary twilight, and whose "tomb" it will not allow us to visit ; it in no way tends, even indirectly, either to strengthen or to weaken the accounts of the distribution of the ashes, or of their removal by Asoka, or of the destruction of Kapilavastu and the Sākyas ; nor does it supply us with materials for constructing a chronological system; it simply makes us acquainted, together with the name of an unknown personage, no doubt some local rūja, with the existence (after so many others, teeth, frontal bone, alms-bowl, hair, even the very shadow) of new relics of the great reformer, relios probably more ancient, and which we may, if so inclined, suppose more authentic, than any others. This is little; but a negative result is better than illusory data.
The relics are now at Bangkok, whore, after so many centuries of oblivion, they once more serve for the edification of the faithful.
* Journ, Roy. A. 800, 1906, p. 452. Zeitschr. 1. vergleich, Sprach., XXIII. p. 504, and XXV. p. 292. 16 Journ. Aratique, VIL (1906), p. 186.
