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JUNE, 1909.]
ASOKA NOTES.
151
ASOKA NOTES.
BY VINCENT A. SMITH.
(Continued from Vol. XXXVII, p. 24.) No. X.--Aboks in Fa-hien's Travels – with notice of some Discoveries near Patna.
The facts and traditions concerning Apska recorded by the Obinese pilgrims are of such importance for the history of his reign that readers of the Inli in Antiquary probably will be glad to have the relevant passages brought together in a convenient form. The earlier pilgrim, Fa-hien (399-414 A, D.), has not much to say on the subject. The present paper will be confined to the collection and brief discussion of his scanty observations, and on another occasion I hope to be able to treat in a similar way the much more voluminous notices of Hiuen Tsang (629-45 A. D.).
Asôka may be assumed to have died in either 232 or 231 B. O. It is not possible, for various reasons, to fix the date with greater precision, but for all practical purposes it may be regarded as accurately kaown, and if 232 B. O. be assumed as the year of the great emperor's decease no material error can occur. The visit of Fa-hien to India, therefore, occurred some 632 years after the death of Asoka, and Biuen Tsang's 230 years later still. Thus, even at the time of the travels of the first pilgrim, the Maurya dynasty belonged to a remote and, in large measure, legendary past. During the interval the Sangas, Andhras, and other dynasties bad passed away, and many changes in language, script, customs, and political organization had taken place. The testimony of the Chinese pilgrims to the history of Asoka, consequently, must be interpreted as the voice of tradition speaking of distant and half-forgotten antiquity. If we imagine an English chronicler at the time of the Norman Conquest trying to call up a vision of the Roman occupation of Britain we shall be able to appreciate the width of the gulf of time which yawned between Akôka and Fa-hien, not to speak of Hjgen Tsang.
My qnotations from Fa-hien are made in the first instance from Legge's version, which is the best on the whole, but his rendering will be checked by comparison with the rival versions of Rémusat and Klaproth as Englished by Laidlay, of Beal, in the revised form published in Records of the Western World, and of Giles as given ia the little volume published at London and Shanghai without date, but issued, I believe, in 1877. The translation by Beal on which Prof. Giles showered such merciless criticism was that published separately in 1869, which was superseded (except for the notes) by the corrected edition included in volume I of the Records. These preliminary observations Day serve as sufficient introduction to the four passages in Fa-bien's Travels dealing with Asokan history which I now proceed to collect and annotate.
Passage No. I.
Chapter X.-Dharma-vardbana, son of Asoka. The travellers going downwards from this (scil. the stúpa marking the place where Buddhis ransomed the dove with a piece of his fesh) towards the east, in five days came to the country of Gandhậra, the place where Dharma-vivardhana, the son of Apka, ruled.' Legge notes that Fa Yi is the Chinese form representing Dharma-vivar.Ihana, and that this is the first mention of Asoka. sidlay gives the Chinese words as follows :
wei = Gandbars of Legge; Fai, meaning .extension of the Law,' = Dharna vardhana ; and Ayu, more frequently designated Wou-yu = Aśôka, whose name is also transcribed as A shou kia. The history of Abôka, as known in 1848, is then discussed in long notes, which need not detain us now.
