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THE EARLY FAITH OF AŞOKA.
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OPAArno from column i. to column ii.; but in this case the “Agni” is preferentially Vedic, and the Iranian branch has its own representative of “Fire,” in the technical A PO. There is also another objection to be met, in the matter of the prefix. It has been usual to follow Lassen's identification of APAOXPO, as meaning "half-Siva," i.e. the female form of that hermaphrodite god ;? but these new legends suggest, if they do not prove, that the prefix Apa corresponds to the Sanskrit za Țita, “ worshipped," great, etc., instead of to the assumed i arddhan,"half.” And as, in the present instance, the figure to which the designation is attached is clearly a male, with spear and crested helmet, there can be no pretence of making a half-female out of this device.
II. IRANIAN GODS. The opening osao of this list might well have claimed a place in column i., in virtue of its approximation to the Vedio Váyu-a term under which “the wind” is equally addressed in the Zend-Avesta : Väyus uparókairyo, “the wind whose business is above the sky." 4 But the term oo is certainly closer in orthography to the Persian sb bád, and the class of coins upon which it is found pertain more definitely to the Iranian section of the Aryan race, and refer to days when the main body of the Vedic Aryans had long since passed on to the banks of the Jumna.
The MIIPO has been committed to column ii. on simply
1 " Agni is the god of fire, the Ignis of the Latins, the Ogni of the Slavonians. He is one of the most prominent deities of the Rig Veda. . . Agni is not, like the Greek Hephaitos, or the Latin Vulcan, the artificer of the gods.”—Muir, vol. v. p. 199.
? Journ. A.S. Bengal, 1840, p. 455; Ind. Alt. (new edition), vol. ii. p. 839; Wilson, Ariana Antiqua, p. 366.
3 Ar. An. pl. xii. fig. 3; Journ. A.S. Bengal, 1836, pl. XXXVI, 1 ; Prinsep's Essays, pl. xxi. fig. 1; Journ. R.A.S. Vol. XII.0.8. Pl. VI. Fig. 1. I must add that the best specimens of the coins extant give the orthography of OPAATNO, which, however, has hitherto been universally accepted as OPAATNO;—a rectification which the parallel frequency of the prefix to other names largely encourages.
4 Hang, p. 194; see also pp. 193-232. 5 Lassen, J.A.S.B., 1840, p. 454; Wilson, Ariana Antiqua, p. 369; Muir, S. Texts, vol. v. p. 143,"Váyu does not occupy a very prominent place in the KigVeda."
