4 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Brngal. [Januaiy, 1907. 



the word can mean a wheel or circuit; cf. S.B.E. Yol. XX, p. 176, 

 note*-SaihsaranakItiko iifima cakalayutto kitiko. And as suggested 

 by the word anusamyana of the edicts I attempt to render it by 

 * place of assembly. ' If, however, it is to be taken as = Skr. 

 Sariismarana, .we shall be reduced to the expedient of giving 

 figurative ineaning to nikhita, namely, 'deposited in your 

 memory,' and literal meaning to nikhijpatha in the very next line. 

 The V place of assembly ' may have been at Pataliputra or at 

 Kausambi. 



Line 10. — I read Kofavisavesu doubtfully : the aksara after vi 

 is sufficiently unlike the signs for dental sa which occur so fre- 

 quently in our inscription. 



Lines 11, 12. — Vivnsayatha and mvnsdpayntha I derive from the 

 root vas to shine : cf. Professor Oldenberg, Z.D.M. G., Vol. XXXV, 

 p. 475, and my discussion below of other derivations proposed for 

 these words. 



THE VERSIONS AT SANCHI AND KAUSAMBI. 



T 



Biihler took the mage hate oi the Sanchi version (E.I. Vol. 



II, p. 367) as something material. But is not the path of paths, 



the path of Dharma, more appropriate to the entire context of the 



three versions of this edict ? In lines 2 (end) and 3 1 think these 



aksaras are legible : — otapa + vutike bhamte madhuriyake ; and 



the last two words are seemingly adjectives agreeing with mage 



in a figurative sense. In the Kausambi impression (LA. Vol. 



XIX,) 1. 4, the aksaras a v s y y would represent avasayiye of 1. 5 



at Sarnath. The Kausambi edict ends with this word, which the 



reader will note is the final word of the S'asana proper. If (as 



I have suggested) this is the Upi meant in paragraph 2 of the 



Sarnath record, it is of further interest as bearing on the proposed 



identifications of the ancient city of Kausambi. 



THE EDICT OF RUPNATH, SAHASRAM AND BRAHxMA- 



GIRL 



For an excellent su^mmary of the various interpretations of 

 the numerals 256, which occur in these edicts, the reader should 

 tvLm to Mr. Fleet's article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society, 1904. He states his own view at pp. 21 — 26. Mr. Vin- 

 cent Smith concurs and writes in his " Early History of India " 

 (1904) : — " These Minor Rock Edicts are dated expressly 256 years 

 after the death of Buddha, and thus fix that event as having 

 occurred in or about the year 487 B.C., according to the belief 

 current at the Court of Pataliputra, only two centuries and a half 

 after its occurrence '* (p. 149). The opposite pole of opinion is 

 reached by M. Senart who holds that the alleged date in the era 

 of the Nirvaua at Rupnath rests on an illusion and a mistake. 



The new edict at Sarnath would seem to throw lio-ht on these 

 conflicting opinions. With the Rupnath inscription i't shares the 

 formula which 1 have described as the ending of a Government 



