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316
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[DECEMBER, 1908.
himself much heavenly bliss. And for this purpose was given the precept, Let small and great exert themselves. My neighbours, too, should learn this lesson ; and may such exertion long endore! For this purpose of mine will grow its growth yes, it will grow vastly, at least half as large again will be its growth. And this parpose has been written on the rocks, both here and in distant places; and wherever a stone pillar exists, it must be written on the stone pillar. And as often as a man seasons his cooked food with this condiment, he will be satisfied even to satiety. This precept has been given by the Departed. 256 years bave elapsed from the departure of the Teacher (?)."
No serious objection can possibly be, nor has been, raised to the correctness of this translation, except in regard to a few particulars. The period given for the interval when Asoka was a lay disciple and the numerical figures in the last paragraph have been differently interpreted by different authors. As regards the numerical fgures, the Brabmagiri text reads thus :- " Tyam cha sacane sd » (d) (i) te Vyúthena 256 se." The Rûpnath text runs thus " Vyuthend sa cane kate 256 - Suta sirdsd ta." We find the following at Sahasrâm: "Tyam (cha sápane) vivuthena dure sa pamnbláti satd viouthá ti 256." The various renderings of this puzzling passage have been collected by Dr. Fleet in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for January 1904. M. Senart considers that the words refer to the “ 256 settings out of missionaries," and Professor Olenberg, to the number of men wbo taught on earth. Bat the most rational interpretation hitherto attempted is the one given by Dr. Bühler and adopted by Mr. Smith in the translation given above." Dr Böbler who first brought the contents of the edict to public notice in 1877, maintained from first to last that the words and the numerical symbols are a date and that the passage means that the edict was promulgated when 236 complete years had elapsed, and in the course of the 257th after the death of Buddha." That the figures 256 represented a date is also the opinion of Cunningham, Max Müller, Kern, Pischel, Boyer and Rhys Davids, though the last named Professor considered the figurus to represent the number of years elapsed since the great Renunciation of Buddha in the 29th year of his age. In endorsing the view that the figures represent a date and that they are reckonel from the Death of Buddha, Dr. Fleet pointedly mentions that there is no word used in the Brahmagiti text" to give how 256 is to be applied. This is instructive, for the idea of date can be inferred, but not of persons." He therefore translates the Sahasram text as follows, " And this same precept was composed by the Wandere: ; (of) centuries two hundrel) and fifty-six years) have elapsed since the Wanderer ; or in figures 200 (and) 50 (and) 6." The Rūpnath text is thus translated : "(This same) precept was composed by the Wanderer ; (of) eenturies 200 (and) 50 (and) 6 (years have elapsed) since (his) Wanderings." And the Brahmagiri inscription is translated thus : " And this same precept was inculeated by the Wanderer ; 200 (and) 50 (and) (years have elapsed since then)."
There can be no doubt that both Dr. Bühler and Dr. Fleet have correctly surmined that 256 is & date, and that it begins in the year of Buddha's death. But with the greatest de erence to their very high attainments, I must hambly submit that they are wrong with reference to the person denoted by the word 'vyatha' or 'vivuths' which simply means 'departed.' I consider that the precept is of Alokal himself, given alınost on his deathbed, that
.J.R.A.S., January, 1904.
# Mr. V. A. Smith, to whom I sent an advance copy of this paper, kindly draws my attention to an article by himself and Mr. F, W. Thomas since published in the Indian Antiquary, wherein Mr. Thomas says: "But according to one text the deana is kaça, 'made,' and this seems to imply rather a newly-composed, then an ancient, precept. The actual tenor of the precept confirms this theory. ... The leason, therefore, which he would inculcate is
new one, an outcome of a recent personal experience... The author of the procept..is Aboks himself." Mr. Smith adds in a footnote to the copy of that article kindly sent by him to me: "V. Gopala Aiyer agrees and I am pretty sure that this is right." But Mr. Thomas takes 'uydtha' to mean Asoka's missionary travels. This appears to me to be incorrect. Mr. Smith himself ways in another footnote to the same copy with reference to this interpretation of Mr. Thomas: "This, I now admit, is doubtfal."
