470 Application of the Sanchi alphdhet 



j _ _ 



> A 1" UO, UJL > rb I E>i-HLr 



Devdnampiya Piyadasi rdjd evam aha. 

 Thus the anomalous use of the 7, the value of the vowel e, and 

 the identity of the language with the grammatical Pali, were explained 

 and confirmed. Other variations equally useful were extracted : — thus 

 in another part of the Girnar text the name was found in the in- 

 strumental case, Devdnampiyena Piyadasina ; ' by Devdnam-piya, the 

 beloved.' Sometimes the name is contracted as at the conclusion of 

 the Delhi text, ' eta devdnampiya aha' (for etam), 'the foregoing spoke 

 the raja.' In other places the name is Devdnampiyadasi, without the 

 second piya, and Idja or raja is often omitted. But one of the most 

 important variations occurs again in the Girnar text ; Devdnam piya 

 piya dasi raja yasovakiti, where yasovdhiti, for yasa uvdcha iti*, ' lo 

 this spake he,' (or vakti, speaks) is substituted for the ordinary form, 

 evam aha. 



Collecting together the above evidence, I think it will be admitted 

 that the initial sentence is satisfactorily determined"}-, and that it has 

 every appearance of being the declaratory formula of some royal edict, 

 or some profession of faith. The simplicity of the form reminds us of 

 the common expression in our own Scriptures — " Thus spake the pro- 

 phet ;" or in the proclamation of the Persian monarch — " Thus saith 

 Cyrus, king of Persia." There is none of that redundant and fulsome 

 hyperbole which we find in the Sanskrit grants and edicts of later 

 days. 



I should have been inclined to expect from the extensive distribution 

 of the document over districts, never, as far as we know, governed by a 

 single Indian monarch, that it rather contained the doctrines of some 

 great reformer, such as Sha'kya, to whom the epithets devdnampriya 

 priya-darsivaxght be applied. But not to mention the inapplicability 

 of the title rdja to such a person, the next sentence, which is also re- 

 peated several times, sets the matter of its royal authorship at rest. 

 This sentence follows the opening just described, on the north, south, 

 and west tablets of the Delhi pillar in the form following : 



Saddavisati vasa-abhisitena me, which Ratna Paula immediately 

 read as satta visati vasse abhisittena me, ' in the twenty-seventh year 



* The Pklivdfc is the Sanskrit <T <fr i, synoniroous with "^T^ speech. 



*f* The Rev. Mr. Stevenson's reading was ^rrcfxjij fq-q ^rijr VTsbr? 

 which he translated, " In the two ways (of wisdom and of works ?) with all speed 

 do I approach the resplendent receptacle of the ever-moving luminous radiance." 



