Dharma. We have already made acquaintance with Dharma as a legitimate end of existence in the philosophical writings of the Sankhyas; but there are two reasons why these Pali proclamations could not be the work of Brahmans: first, because Brahmans refused to instruct any but men invested with the sacred thread, and therefore learned in Sanskrit; and second, because a Brahmanical King would have left instruction to Brahmans, and was not likely to teach Dharma in his own name without even referring to Rishis (saints), or Sruti (what has been heard), or Smriti (what has been remembered). We will however first inspect the series of Edicts, and reserve further discussion until their contents have fairly occupied our minds.

CHAPTER III.

"Day broke; the morning of a mighty year

Came forth and smiled."-BARRY CORNWALL.

JAMES PRINSEP's first joyful renderings of the inscriptions on the rocks have been revised by Wilson fully, and partially by Lassen, and more lately, Prinsep, Wilson, and Lassen's translations were revised by Burnouf. These learned men had the advantage not only of mutual assistance and of new transcripts, but also of a new original, for the inscription at Kapur di Giri was not deciphered during the lifetime of James Prinsep. Professor Wilson offered his new readings as subject to correction in every page," and as given not in opposition, but in continuation of the work already effected. Indeed the testimony of so great a scholar to the merits of his young coadjutor is too interesting to be omitted. "With regard," he says, "to the translations which we owe to the learning and ingenuity of the late James Prinsep, we must remember that they were the first attempts to convey a knowledge of the purport of documents in a new character and unknown language; copies had been published for many years, but had baffled

...

the most eminent scholars, and remained undeciphered until James Prinsep discovered their real nature and rendered them readable; . . . whatever may be objected to particular passages. will not invalidate his claims to our acknowledgment and admiration for what he has accomplished with unequalled labour, incomparable ingenuity, and unrivalled success."* Not less graceful is M. Burnouf's manner of introducing his corrections. "Si je viens à mon tour, après de si savans hommes, proposer mon interprétation, c'est que comme personne ne peut se flatter d'arriver du premier coup à l'intelligence définitive de ces monumens difficiles, il n'y a personne non plus qui ne puisse se flatter d'aider à leur interprétation."

We shall first consider the fourteen Edicts on the rocks, of which Professor Wilson has collated four copies. These Edicts were issued in the twelfth and fourteenth years of the reign of a King who calls himself Piyadasi, the beloved of the Gods; and there are many reasons for believing that the person so designated is the great Buddhist King Asoka, who reigned from B.C. 260 to 220.

TABLET I.

...

This is the Edict of the beloved of the Gods, the Raja Piyadasi. The putting to death of animals is to be entirely discontinued, and no convivial meeting is to be held, for the beloved of the Gods, Raja Piyadasi, remarks many faults in such assemblies. There is but one assembly indeed which is approved of by the Raja, . which is that of the great kitchen of Raja Piyadasi; every day hundreds of thousands of animals have been slaughtered for virtuous purposes, but now although this pious Edict is proclaimed that animals may be killed for good purposes, and such is the practice; yet as the practice is not determined, these presents are proclaimed, that hereafter they shall not be killed.†

* Rock Inscriptions, Feb. 1849, J. R. A. S., xii. p. 251.
Wilson, J. R. A. S., xii.

The literal expression is that hundreds of thousands of animals were killed daily to make soup in the King's kitchen, but that this was done before the King had become religious. According to the Brahmanical Code of Manu, pious people must avoid flesh-meat, and "feel tender affection for all animated bodies," occasioning "not even the smallest dread to sentient creatures."* And with the same feeling the Sankhya philosophers objected to the Vedic mode of "putting an end to pain" (obtaining absorption after death), because it involved sacrifice or was "attended by the slaughter of animals." The Brahmans had therefore already taught the virtue of respecting animal life, but a Brahmanical King would not have practised this virtue whilst he remained king; instead of proclaiming it as a rule of life for universal acceptation, he would have abdicated his throne, and have performed his fasts and asceticisms in seclusion.

TABLET II.

In all the conquered territories of the Raja Piyadasi, even unto the ends of the earth, as in Chola, in Pida (the kingdom of Satyaputra),† in Keralaputra (or Malabar), and in Tambapanni (or Ceylon), and to Antiochus the Yona Raja, and to those Princes who are allied with him, it is proclaimed that two designs have been cherished by Piyadasi,-one regarding men, and one relating to animals,-that everywhere wholesome vegetables, roots, and fruit-trees shall be cultivated, and that on the roads wells shall be dug and trees planted, to give enjoyment for both men and animals.

The above reading of Tablet II. is taken partly from Wilson and partly from Lassen; it was however Mr. Prinsep who first explored its contents and discovered the name of

* Code of Manu, vi. 14, viii. 40.

Satyaputra means "Son of Truth." Lassen considers it the Buddhist name of the King of Pida, a place near Arcot.

Antiochus, which he had hailed with characteristic ardour. Indian antiquities excited but little attention, he observed, so long as they illustrated mere Indian history; "but the moment any name or event turns up, . . . offering a point of connection between the legends of India and the histories of Greece and Rome, ... a spreading interest is aroused. Such was the engrossing interest which attended the identification of Sandracottus with Chandragupta, in the days of Sir William Jones; such the ardour with which the Sanskrit was studied, and is still studied, by philologists at home, after it was discovered to bear an intimate relation to the classical languages of Europe. I have now to bring to the notice of the Society another link of the same chain of discovery, which will, if I do not deceive myself, create a still stronger degree of general interest in the labours, and of confidence in the deductions, of our antiquarian members, than any that has preceded it. that has preceded it. I feel it so impossible to keep this highly singular discovery to myself, that I risk the imputation of bringing it forward in an immature shape."* This name Antiochus Mr. Prinsep had already observed in four different places, sometimes with and sometimes without the addition of Yona or Yavana Raja. Professor Lassen supposes this King to have been Antiochus II., who died в.c. 247, twelve years after the inauguration of Asoka.

TABLET III.

King Priyadasit says:-This was ordained by me when I had *J. A. S. B., Feb. 1838, p. 156.

In the last discovered inscriptions at Kapur di Giri, in the Punjab, Professor Wilson observes that this name has "the more correct Sanskrit form of Priya, instead of the Pali Piyadasi." The spelling is consequently different in the different tablets.