260 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [May, 1910. 



caste, the rules of society, the rules of religion, and the rules 

 of conduct, they were the persons to prescribe atonements 

 and levy fines. Feeding Brahmanas was regarded as an act of 

 merit that would atone for many social offences. The appoint- 

 ments created by Asoka of Dharma Mahamatas, that is, of 

 superintendents of morals, was a direct invasion of the rights 

 and privileges of the Brahmanas. And they were not the 

 persons to brook the injury done to them quietly. And to 

 crown all, Asoka, in one of his edicts, insisted upon all his 

 officers to strictly observe the principles of Danda-samata 

 and Vyavahara-samata, that is, the equality of punishment 

 and the equality in law-suits, irrespective of caste, colour and 

 creed. The words Danda-samata and Vyavahara-samata has 

 not been properly translated by any of the scholars that have 

 dealt with the Asoka inscriptions. They have not, in fact, 

 rasped the full meaning of these words. The Brahmanas have 

 always claimed the privilege of immunity from criminal punish- 

 ment. For offences, however heinous, their highest punishment 

 was banishment with all their property and possession from the 

 kingdom. Capital punishments were unknown to them. Corpo- 

 ral punishment to a Brahmana was illegal. The highest indig- 

 nity that can be inflicted on a Brahmana was the cutting of 

 his top-knot. They also enjoyed various privileges in law-suits. 

 They could not be summoned as witnesses. If they came to 

 the witness-box of their own accord, the Judge is simply to 

 take down their statements without cross-examinations, and so 

 on. Under such circumstances, the prospects of being huddled 



together in prison with the unspeakable non-Aryans, whipped, 

 impaled alive, and hanged, were very offensive to the highly 

 educated, respectable and privileged community. They toler- 

 ated these indignities heaped on them as long as the strong 

 hand of Asoka was guiding the empire. They were sullen and 

 discontented. As soon as that strong hand was removed, they 

 seemed to have stood against his successors. But they were 

 not military people. They could not fight themselves. The 

 Ksatriyas, who fought for them and made them great, were all 

 extirpated by the Nandas. They began to cast their eyes for 

 a military man to fight for them. And they found such a man 

 in Pusya Mittra, the Commander-in-Chief of the Maurya 

 empire. To what caste Pusya Mittra belonged nobody knows. 

 He belonged perhaps to those turbulent military spirits who 

 had been driven away from Persia by the Greek conquest of 

 that country. For the second half of his name, Mittra, and 

 that of all the members of his family show his Persian origin. 

 He was a Brahminist to the core and hated the Buddhists. 

 At first he led the Maurya armies against the Greeks, who 

 advanced year after year to the very heart of the Maurya 

 empire. After a successful campaign, he returned to Patali- 

 putra with his victorious army, and the feeble representative 



