1878.] Rajendralala Mitra— 0« tie Early Life of AhJca. 15 



room to doubt that in this country Jainism was a prevailing religion in the 

 time of Asoka and for some time before it. But it must be added that 

 there has not been a single fact adduced which could directly bear 

 upon the early religion of the author of the rock and the Lat edicts. 

 It is abundantly evident from the edicts that Asoka did forsake one 

 religion and accept another ; but what it was he forsook, the edicts do 

 not say. There is one passage in these edicts, however, which affords 

 circumstantial evidence of great importance. Mr. Thomas has care- 

 fully analysed the whole of the edicts, and described at great length their 

 scope and purpose, but the particular passage to which the speaker referred 

 had been somehow all but entirely overlooked. The passage referred was 

 the last paragraph of the first Tablet,andin adverting to it, Mr. Thomas simply 

 quotes these words: "This is the edict of the beloved of the gods Raja Piya- 

 dasi — the putting to death of animals is to be entirely discontinued." 

 Now the passage, as rendered by Prinsep, runs thus — " Formerly in the 

 great refectory and temple of the heaven-beloved king Piyadasi daily were 

 many hundred thousand animals sacrificed for the sake of meat food. So 

 even at this day, while this religious edict is under promulgation, from the 

 sacrifice of animals for the sake of food, some two are killed, or one is 

 killed ; — but now the joyful chorus resounds again and again — that from 

 henceforward not a single animal shall be put to death."* In the revised 

 version of Professor Wilson, this passage runs as follows: "There is but 

 one assembly, indeed, which is approved of by the Raja Piyadasi, the be- 

 loved of the gods, which is that of the great kitchen of Raja Piyadasi, the 

 beloved of the gods ; every day hundreds of thousands of animals have been 

 slaughtered for virtuous purposes, but now, although this pious edict is pro- 

 claimed that animals may be killed for good purposes and such is the prac- 

 tice is not determined, these presents are proclaimed that hereafter they 

 shall not be killed.f" 



Dr. Mitra was not satisfied with the second version, as it made the 

 king declare " that the only assembly he approved of was ' his' own great 

 kitchen." The worst of gourmands would have scarcely said so in a royal 

 edict. It was, however, not necessary to discuss the question ; it was 

 enough for the purposes of the speaker that both versions admitted that 

 hundreds of thousands of animals were at one time sacrificed for human 

 food in the kitchen of Asoka ; and this fact, he held, was sufficient to show 

 that that monarch at the time could not have been a Jain. The philoso- 

 phical character of Jainism allied it very closely to Vedantism, and in that 

 respect it could well pass for a Hindu form of faith. Its belief in the 

 Tirthankaras, or incarnations of the Godhead for the redemption of sinners 

 and the spread of the true religion, also brought it into close relationship 

 » Journal As. Soc. VII, p. 257. t Jour. Roy. As. Soc. XII, p. 164. 



