250 Inscription in#ld character on the [March, 



Translation of the Third Tablet, 



Thus spake the heaven-beloved king Piyadasi : 



" By me after the twelfth year of my anointment, this commandment 

 is made ! Every where in the conquered (provinces) among the faithful, 

 whether (my own) subjects or foreigners, after every five years, let 

 there be (a public) humiliation for this express object, yea for the 

 confirmation of virtue and for the suppression of disgraceful acts. 



" Good and proper is dutiful service to mother and father; — towards 

 friends and kinsfolk, towards brahman s and sramans, excellent is cha- 

 rity: — prodigality and malicious slander are not good. 



" All this the leader of the congregation shall inculcate to the assem- 

 bly with (appropriate) explanation and example." 



Translation of the Fourth Tablet. 



" In times past even for many hundred years has been practised the 

 sacrifice of living beings, the slaughter of animals ; disregard of relations, 

 and disrespect towards brahmans and sramans : — This day by the mes- 

 senger of the religion of the heaven-beloved king Piyadasi, (has been 

 made) a proclamation by beat of drum, a grand announcement of religi- 



Notes to the Third Tablet. 



Vijite, in the second tablet vijiiamhi, in the Cuttack idiom vijitamsi ; all variations 

 of the Pali locative case. Vijitam may, I believe, mean dominion generally as well 

 as conquest. 



Yote is the Sanskrit ^=^ ; yugeoia the other hand is £jjjj the devoted :— both nearly 

 similar in signification. 



Anusayinam, S. ^j^^^jif penitence. Siydtu ^JTTJ" ' let be' is replaced by mMa- 

 mavu quasi fift^H ^frT ' is undoubtedly proper,' ^ zeal, see the same word in 

 the extract quoted below. 



Dhamma anusanst&ya * for firmly establishing virtue'^i^f^fj^ and ^TTO3rr^t*J 

 * for the avoiding of disgraceful acts' are imperfectly deciphered at Dhauli,— Kam- 

 mane and anusayasa u. 



Ndtinam samandnam, &c. in the genitive or rather dative case, are put in the loca- 

 tive natisu—samanehi, (q. nemsi.) at Dhauli. The same holds for pandnam, replaced 

 by jivisu, ' among living things.' 



Parisdpiyuto is, I suppose, compounded of "qf^"^ an assembly, ^jjfxf and ^raj: 

 quasi the * leader of the congregation.' The Cuttacn text adds chatiyatdni quasi 

 belonging to or near the cbetiya ? 



Apavyayatd, ' lavish expenditure'— and apabhindatd, calumny, ^gfqjfc or perhaps 

 apabhdnditd,' separation from society:' ^yq§ (cooking vessel) . Read asadhu. The 

 Dhauli orthography of viyatd explains a word misunderstood on the pillars. 



Hetuto, exactly the Sanskrit -^ rfrT"^ ^jaf ?f <f ^8 ia tue 5th ca se, taspritya,— * as 

 to cause, and as to effect, or token.' 



Notes to the Fourth Tablet. 



Alikdntam anlaram, occurs too often to allow the reading adopted by the pandit 

 of the latter word as the verb btaran:— it is clearly ^f^efr i^fj ^-tHC ' elapsed inter- 

 val' — used adverbially, and deuotiug that an anterior period of obedience existed. 



