CHAP. VOL] EXTINCTION OF THE " GREAT DYNASTY." 379 



doctrine, but also with the letter of the law laid down A.D. 

 for the guidance of his disciples. Two of the singular 

 rock-inscriptions of India deciphered by Prinsep, in- 

 culcate the duty of leaving the profession of different 

 faiths unmolested ; on the ground, that " ah 1 aim at 

 moral restraint and purity of life, although all cannot 

 be equally successful in* attaining to it." The sentiments 

 embodied in one of the edicts 1 of King Asoka are very 

 striking : " A m3!h must honour his own faith, without 

 blaming that of his neighbour, and thus will but little that 

 is wrong occur. There are even circumstances under 

 which the faith of others should be honoured, and in 

 acting thus a man increases his own faith and weakens 

 that of others. He who acts differently, diminishes his 

 own faith and injures that of another. Whoever he may 

 be who honours his own faith and blames that of others 

 out of devotion to lu's own, and says, ' let us make our 

 faith conspicuous,' that man merely injures the faith he 

 holds. Concord alone is to be desired." 



The obligation to maintain the religion of Buddha 

 was as binding as the command to abstain from as- 

 sailing that of its rivals, and hence the kings who had 

 treated the snake-worshippers with kindness, who had 

 made a state provision for maintaining " offerings to 

 demons," and built dwellings at the capital to accom- 

 modate the " ministers of foreign religions," rose in 

 fierce indignation against the preaching of a firm be- 

 liever in Buddha, who ventured to put an independent 

 interpretation on points of faith. They burned the 

 books of the Wytulians, as the new sect were called, 

 and frustrated their irreligious attempt. 2 The first 



Wytulia was a Brahman who had 

 " subverted by craft and intrigue the 

 religion of Buddha " (ch. ii. p. 61 ). 

 As it is stated in a further passage 

 that the priests who were implicated 



The Mahawanso throws no light ; were stripped of their habits, it is 

 on the nature of the "NVytulian (or evident that the innovation had been 

 "Wettulyan) heresy (ch. xxvii. p. 227), i introduced under the garb of Buddha, 

 but the Rajaratnacari insinuates that ' Rajaratnacari, ch. ii. p. 65. 



1 The twelfth tablet, which, as 

 translated by BFKNOUF and Pro- 

 fessor "WILSOX, will be found in Mrs. 

 SPEIR'S Life in Ancient India, book ii. 

 ch. iv. p. 239. 



