448 Examination of the Inscription [[May, 



read aloud in the last month of the year, in the lunar mansion Tisa, 

 even if one person be present ; thus to the end of time to afford in- 

 struction to the congregation, of the tup ha. 



Antal&pi tisena — ^"AKinf — in the course of the month. The other edict has 

 antanuisi — at the end of the same month, which is most likely the right reading. 



Sanghatha sampatipddayitave — corrected from cha ghatha sampatipddayisave, On 

 the authority of the nineteenth line of the first edict. If ghatha be preferred it must 

 be rendered by 5J«3J grantha, sacred volume ? 



Observations. 



I have stated that the first and last tablets at Dhauli, were totally 

 distinct from the general series of Asoka's religious edicts. This is 

 manifest as well from the mode of the address, as from the parties ad- 

 dressed. The expression Devdnampiyasa vachanena, ' by command 

 of Devanampiya' — seems to denote that the proclamation was issued by 

 some functionary under the royal authority. The same peculiar open- 

 ing occurs in the short supplementary inscription on the Allahabad 

 pillar, but while that was addressed to the ministry in general fSavata 

 mahdmdtd vataviyd — the ministers every where are to receive notice), 

 both of the present are confined to the immediate residents in the dis- 

 trict, — one being worded, Tosaliyam onuhdmdta nagala vihdlaka 

 vataviyam — < the ministers or officers enjoying the city in (the pro- 

 vince of) Tosali — or it may be * attached to the city Vihdra — are 

 to be informed;' — the other — Tosaliyam kumdle mahdmdtd cha vata- 

 viyam. In both these cases the gerund is in the neuter, but proba- 

 bly the inflections have been omitted in the copying. 



It will be remarked that the simple word mahdmdtd, (Sans, mahd- 

 mdtrahj is used, not dhammamahdmdtd* , the great officers or minis- 

 ters of religion : — the order therefore may be regarded as an injunction 

 from the court to the head civil authorities of the place. Moreover in 

 the first tablet, these officers alone are mentioned, whereas in the second 

 tablet the word Kumdle, (ffflTC:) young prince, is joined with them, as 

 though he had been in the former instance too young to be regarded, 

 and his chief officers had been nagala vihdlaka, as we should say, ' in 

 charge of the town.' 



Arrian in his Indices gives exactly this account of the routine of 

 civil administration of the country in Alexander's time ; — and one 



* The sense I proposed for mahdmdtd on first reading the pillar text, and repeated 

 in November last, of ' sacred doctrine' has been necessarily set aside by the ©lear 

 enunciation of the Girnar text. 



