1920.] Notes on some Edicts of Aéoka. 335 
have had definitely religious associations. This was also the 
case with the parisad spoken of in R.E. II. ~Therein Asoka 
says: ‘The parisad also will issue orders to yuktas in the 
parisad since, apparently, if it were granted to the officers 
themselves, they might take advantage of their privilege and 
neglect their work. The rajjukas and the pradestkas, however, 
who were high-grade officers, were not thus subordinated to 
the parisad in this work of preaching, presumably because they 
were men of proved capacity. Now, here also, we find the 
denotes in the Upanisads an ‘ assemblage ’ of advisers in ques- - 
tions of philosophy .... In 
denotes a body of advisers on religious topics, but also the 
assessors of a judge, or the council of ministers of a prince.” 
The evolution of meaning from ‘an assemblage of advisers in 
questions of philosophy’ to ‘the council of ministers of a 
prince’ must have been through the meaning ‘a body of 
1 Cf. Liiders, Sitz Preus Ak Wis 1914, pp. 834-6. 
2 Vedic Index, 8.V. * Parisad.’ 
