Jainism Early Faith of Ashoka

Author(s): Edward Thomas
Publisher: Trubner and Company London

Page 90

54 ' THE EARLY FAITH OF AŞOKA. diversities may have existed in the spirit or method of interpretation of the difficult passages of the 1st and 2nd series of Asoka's Edicts, our international savants are fully in accord as to the first appearance in monumental writing of the name of Buddha, that is, some time in or after the 27th year of Aşoka.
"King Priyadarşin (that is, the Humane) of Magadba greets the Assembly (of Clerics) and wishes them welfare and happiness. Ye know, sirs, how great is our reverence and affection for the triad which is called Buddha (the master), Faith, and Assembly. All that our Lord Buddha has spoken, my Lords is well spoken: wherefore, Sirs, it must indeed be regarded as having indisputable authority; so the true Faith shall last long. Thus, my Lords, I honour (°) in the first place these religious works . . . [seven in number] uttered by our Lord Buddha . . . For this end, my Lords, I cause this to be written, and have made my wish evident." — Indian Antiquary, Sept. 1876, p. 257.
In concluding this section of the inquiry, I am anxious to advert to a point of considerable importance, the true bearing of which has, hitherto, scarcely been recognized. Under the old view of the necessary Buddhistic aim and tendency of both the Rock and Pillar Edicts, a subdued anomaly might have been detected in Aşoka's designating himself as Devánampiya, “the beloved of the gods." We have seen at page 41 in what terms the rock inscriptions are phrased ; the pillar edicts, in like manner, commence with the same title of Devánampiye Piyadasi lája,' while the Bhabra Inscription unconditionally rejects the Devánampiya, which we may infer would have been inconsistent with Aşoka's sudden profession of Buddhism, and opens with the restricted entry of Br JE Piyadasa laja.
Now, it involves a more than remarkable coincidence, that this same term of Devánampiya, or “Beloved of the gods," should prove to have been an established and conventional title among the Jainas, equally, as, in a less important sense, was
1 J.A.S. Bengal, vol. vi. p. 577.
% In Stevenson'e translation of the Kalpa Sútra Rishabha datta is thus addressed by Devanandi, the mother of Mahavira (pp. 26, 30), and he, in return, salutes her as "O beloved of the gods” (pp. 27, 29, etc.). At p. 54 King Sidd