the end of time."* The Dharma-matra, or ministers, and the prince royal of Ougein are then exhorted to hold quinquennial confessions, but during their performance the people must not abandon their customary trades and occupations.

The second of these detached Edicts is less readable than even the first, but M. Burnouf distinctly makes out the following:-" The Stupa of Dhauli will secure to me bliss hereafter till the end of time;" and, let this "Stupa of commandment be read every four months by the Sangha; in the interval it may be read by individuals, and thus will the good of the Assembly be secured till the end of time.”

We will now turn to the corresponding series of Edicts inscribed upon the five columns at Delhi, Allahabad, Bakra, Mathiah, and Radhiah, which profess to be issued in the twenty-seventh year of Piyadasi's reign; each column has four tablets, facing the four points of the compass: in the north tablet he proclaims that his government shall be guided by the law, which is compassion, alms, truth, and purity, which he practises; but he interrupts himself with the remark, that it is easier to record one's good actions than one's sins, for "violence, cruelty, pride, envy, etc. will not raise a voice against themselves." The western tablet institutes officers called Rajaka, who are to soften the rigours of justice, and be as careful of the people as a nurse is of a a child the meaning is not fully made out, but the King appears no longer to require the protection of his army, the Rajaka guarding him instead: the tablet concludes with granting three days' reprieve to criminals condemned to death, for the very singular reason, that by the virtue of Burnouf, Lotus of Good Law, Appendix x., p. 655.

*

fasts they may be enabled to earn bliss in a future state. The southern tablet contains an enumeration of the animals whom Piyadasi has saved from slaughter, and forbids the death of any animal during the three four-monthly periods, and states in conclusion: "Furthermore, in the twentyseventh year of my reign, this present time, twenty-five prisoners are set at liberty." The eastern tablet is very doubtful; Prinsep thought it repented of the Edict issued in the twelfth year, but this reading requires confirmation.

Circling round the column at Delhi, there is another inscription, unknown to either of the other columns; it states that Piyadasi has planted banyan-trees for shade, and mango-trees for fruit, and has dug wells along the road, and that former kings had conferred similar enjoyments upon mankind; and further, he hopes that his good works, or attachment to law," will incite those who follow him to do the same, and with this view "Let stone pillars be prepared, and let this Edict of dharma be engraven thereon, that it may endure unto remote ages.”

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Since the death of Mr. James Prinsep, yet another inscription has been discovered with the name of Piyadasi ; it is not written on a pillar, but on a block of granite, not more than two and a half feet square by one and a half in depth, and this was discovered at a place called Byrath, six miles from Bhabra, and on the route to Jaypur: the dialect made use of is the ancient Magadhi, which was doubtless the language of the capital and the government at that period. A translation was attempted in Calcutta in 1840, by which it appeared to be another Edict issued by the King Piyadasi, but given on this occasion on the authority of Buddha; so much of this translation was

however philologically improbable, that Professor Wilson waited for verifications of the original before admitting it as evidence. In 1853 a translation by M. Burnouf was published amongst his posthumous papers, which was much less strange than that made in Calcutta ; but as it did not place the inscription altogether in keeping, either with the Piyadasi of the former Edicts or with the Asoka of Buddhist history, a new translation by Professor Wilson, made from a corrected transcript, is particularly welcome. These new readings differ on several points from those of Burnouf, and although based entirely upon grammatical considerations, without any reference to historical probability, they virtually remove all discrepancies.

TRANSLATION OF THE BHABRA INSCRIPTION,

BY PROFESSOR WILSON.

Piyadasi, the King, to the venerable Assembly of Mâgadha, commands the infliction of little pain and indulgence to animals.

It is verily known, I proclaim, to what extent my respect and favour (are placed) in Buddha, and in the Law, and in the Assembly.

Whatsoever (words) have been spoken by the divine Buddha, they have all been well said, and in them verily I declare that capability of proof is to be discerned; so that the pure law (which they teach) will be of long duration, as far as I am worthy (of being obeyed).

For these I declare are the precepts of the Law of the principal discipline (Vinaya), having overcome the oppressions of the Aryas and future perils, (and refuted) the songs of the Munis, the Sutras of the Munis, (the practices) of inferior ascetics, the censure of a light world, and (all) false doctrines.

These things, as declared by the divine Buddha, I proclaim, and I desire them to be regarded as the precepts of the Law.

And that as many as there may be, male and female mendicants, may hear and observe them, as well also as male and female followers (of the laity).

These things I affirm, and have caused this to be written (to make known to you) that such will be my intention.

Thus corrected the Bhabra inscription becomes a consistent portion of the long series of Edicts previously inscribed by Piyadasi. At the commencement the King honours Dharma, the Law; at a later period he respects the Sangha, or Assembly; and here, in the maturity of his faith, he reverences Buddha, the Law, and the Assembly.

CHAPTER IV.

"What noble vanities, what moral flights,
Glittering through their romantic wisdom's page,
Make us at once despise them and admire:

Fable is flat to these high-season'd sires."-YOUNG.

THE inscriptions upon rocks and pillars, being now fully established as the work of a Buddhist King, stand out before us as an exhibition of what Buddhism was subsequent to Alexander the Great, but coeval with the Greek rule of Bactria. The Allahabad pillar bears a wreath of GræcoAssyrian lotus and honeysuckle;* the form of letter used in the inscriptions is identical with that of the Greek coin legends, and the name of Antiochus, the "Yona-rajah," is given more than once distinctly written. Piyadasi's Edicts serve therefore as a fixed buttress on which to hang the long loose threads of Buddhist literature, connecting them on one side with the dim origin of Buddhism, and on the

* See vignette at the close of Book II. Chap. I.