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326 POLITICAL HISTORY OF ANCIENT INDİA the last he took pride in calling himself Devānampiya, beloved of the gods. He found fault with unseemly behaviour towards Brāhmaṇas? and inculcated liberality to the same class. He was perfectly tolerant. “The king does reverence to men of all sects." He reprobated ātmapāsam la-pājā, honour to one's own sect, when coupled with para-pāsamda-garahā, disparagement of other sects. That he was sincere in his professions is proved by the Barābar Cave Dedications to the Ajīvika monks. His hostility was chiefly directed not towards the Devas and the Brāhmaṇas, not even towards Varnāśrama, but the killing of men in war and Samājas ( festive gatherings ), ill-treatment of friends and acquaintances, comrades and relatives, slaves and servants, the slaughter of animals in sacrifice, and the performance of vulgar, useless and offensive ceremonies.
The Change of Foreign Policy The effect of the change of religion was at once felt in foreign policy. The Emperor declared that "of all the people who were slain, done to death, or carried away captive in Kalinga, if the hundredth part or the thousandth part were now to suffer the same fate, it would be a matter of regret to His Sacred Majesty. Moreover, should any one do him wrong, that too must be borne with by His Sacred Majesty, so far as it can possibly be borne with.” In Kalinga Edict I, the Emperor expressed his desire that the unsubdued peoples in the frontiers of the imperial dominions (Amtā avijitā) "should not be afraid of him, that they should trust him, and should receive from him happiness not sorrow.” The chiefest
1 The title is reminiscent of the age of Hammurabi (Camb. Anc. Hist. I. p. 511).
2 Edict IV. 3 Edict XII
