Madhuvidya

Author(s): S D Laddu, T N Dharmadhikari, Madhvi Kolhatkar, Pratibha Pingle
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 308

NORTH-WESTERN (AND WESTERN) INFLUENCE ON THE MYSORE EDICTS OF ASOKA
By
M. A. MEHENDALE In a paper published in the Journal of the Oriental Institute, Baroda, 1, 240-44 (1951-52), I expressed a view that the exceptional forms which occur in the separate edicts of Asoka at Dhauli and Jaugada and which do not occur in the remaining versions of the major rock edicts at these two places suggest that the two separate edicts were issued from a place other than the east. As the exceptional forms in the two separate edicts show affinity with the northwestern dialect of the Asokan inscriptions, I further suggested that the two separate edicts were probably first drafted in the northwestern dialect and then translated into the eastern one. Such an assumption would satisfactorily explain the presence of some northwestern features in the two separate edicts.
Such an assumption would further lead to a hypothesis that not all the edicts of Asoka were first drafted in the eastern dialect, as was hitherto believed. This hypothesis is now borne out by the study of the dialect found in the versions of the minor rock edict at Brahmagiri, Siddāpura, and Jaținga-Rāmeśvara in the Mysore State. These records resemble in contents the versions of the minor rock edict found at Rūpnāth, Sahasrām, Bairāt, Maski, Kopbā! and Yerragudi but they also add to it a second edict' as it were, describing the king's instruction in morality (dhamma). The Mysore versions have another distinct feature viz. that they contain at the end of the edict the name of the scribe, and that whereas the whole edict is written from left to right in the Brāhmi script, only the last word lipikarena 'by the writer' is inscribed from right to left in the Kharoşthi characters. As the Kharoșthi script is other
1. For a description of the places, the text (with plates), and the translation of the versions, see HULTZSCH. Inscriptions of Asoka, CII, 1. xxvi-vii, 175-180 Oxford 1925. The readings and the translations given in this paper are, unless otherwise stated, those adopted by HULTZSCH."
The following abbreviations are used in this paper :D-Dhauli version major edicts J - Jaugada
d-Dhauli separate edicts K- Kälsi
j - Jaugada , S -- Shāhbāzgashi ,
br- Brahmagiri minor rock edict M-Mansehra ,
sd-Siddăpur G-Girnar
jtr - Jatinga--Rāmeśvara, 2. The second edict at Jatinga-Rameśvara appears to be longer than the one at Brahmagiri and Siddāpura. The Jatinga-Rāmeśvara version, however, as a whole is in a much damaged condition. The enlarged version of the added second edict is better preserved in the Yerragudi edict. (ed. by B. M. BARUA, IHQ 13. 132-6, 1957, and by J. BLOCH, Les Inscriptions d'Asoka, Paris, 1950),
Madhu Vidyā/283