1838.] rocks of Girnar in Gvjerat t and Dhauli in Cuttack. 221 



The second edict as we have already seen provides a system of medi- 

 cal aid for men and animals throughout Piyadasi's dominions, and 

 orders trees to be planted and wells to be dug along the sides of the 

 principal public roads. 



The third edict enjoins a quinquennial humiliation, — or if we read 

 the word, by the alteration of y to s, as anusdsanam, the republication 

 every five years of the great moral maxims inculcated in the Bud^ 

 dhist creed, viz :-— Honour to father and mother ; charity to kindred 

 and neighbour and to the priesthood (whether brahmanical or buddhis- 

 tical) ; humanity to animals ; to keep the body in temperance, and the 

 tongue i( from evil speaking J" And these precepts are to be preached 

 to the flock by their pastors with arguments and example. This edict 

 is dated after the twelfth year of Piyadasi's inauguration. 



The fourth edict draws a comparison between the former state of 

 things, perhaps lawless, and uncivilized, and the state of regeneration of 

 the country under the ordinances of the beloved king. The publica- 

 tion of the glad tidings seems to have been made with unexampled 

 pomp and circumstance, and posterity is invoked to uphold the system. 

 This edict is also dated in the twelfth year of Piyadasi. 



The fifth edict after an exordium not very intelligible, proceeds to 

 record the appointment of ministers of religion, or more strictly mis- 

 sionaries ; and enumerates many of the countries to which they are to 

 be deputed for the conversion of the young and the old, the rich and 

 the poor, the native and the foreigner. Many highly curious points 

 especially as to geography call for notice in this edict, wherein for the 

 first time the name of the celebrated city of Pataliputa is made known 

 to us in the ancient character. 



The sixth edict appoints in like manner pativedakas, informers, or per- 

 haps more properly custodes morum, who are to take cognizance of the 

 conduct of the people in their meals, their domestic life, their families, 

 their conversation, their general deportment and their decease. It also 

 nominates magistrates or officers for punishment, if the word atiydyika 

 (S. ^c^JTf^r) may be so understood — so that in this edict we have a 

 glimpse of the excellent system of moral administration for which the 

 Greek and Persian historians give credit to our monarch, and we find 

 it actually not very different from that followed twenty centuries later 

 by ourselves ; for we too have our judges, and our magistrates ; and 

 further pur missionaries are spread abroad among the people ' to 

 drown them with the overflowing truths of our dharma, to release 

 them from the fetters of sin and bring them unto the salvation which 

 passeth understanding /' 

 2 G 



