452 Examination of the Inscription [May, 



elephant called after one in the Mahabharata, — while my own pandit 

 supposed it a corruption of aswastarnbha, the horse-pillar. 



Another local name of the inscription can be traced in an equally 

 satisfactory manner; the present village of Dhavli being evidently 

 named after the Dubaldhi iupha mentioned in the last edict, — the 

 * shrine of the feeble' from "^«TW, in modern Hindi dubld. This esta- 

 blishment was probably a kind of hospital, and if Mr. Kittoe's con- 

 jectures as to the small rock mortars be correct, it must have been 

 amply provided with medicamentary concoctions ! 



The name of the Kalantam tuphe (if this be indeed its name), 

 has not been equally fortunate in its preservation, and nothing can be 

 discovered like it in the neighbourhood. I imagined that it might be 

 read the Kalinga tupha, but on re-examination of the rock the word 

 was found to be correctly written in the transcript. It may be read 

 karanda tuphe, the beehive tope; but, as Jcdldntam, it has a more plausi- 

 ble interpretation, — the end of time I 



The mutilated state of many passages in the inscription as usual 

 prevents my stringing the whole together in a connected shape ; but 

 from the parts extant I should be inclined to regard these two procla- 

 mations as intended chiefly to provide for the reading and due observance 

 of the principal string of commandments, which occupy the central space 

 on the stone ; as well as to record the foundation of the several monas- 

 teries of ascetics mentioned above. 



In both of them is an express regulation as to the time of the year 

 when the edicts are to be read aloud — not exactly when two or three 

 are gathered together — but literally * when even only one be present !' 

 The seasons appointed are nearly half-yearly — one in Bhddra (if 

 Bhdtun may be so interpreted) (August) and the other in Phdlguna the 

 antamdsi, or last month according to the Buddhists (February — March) 

 or near the vernal equinox. By the expression Tiseua nakhatena in 

 the instrumental case — ' with the Tisa lunar mansion,' — is to be 

 understood, when also the moon is in the mansion of Tisya or Pushya, 

 the eighth nakshatra counting from Aswini. Now as the moon is full in 

 the mansion whence the month is named, the Tisya tithi will fall about 

 the 24th of Phalgan, and about the 12th of Bhddra. The veneration in 

 which the mansions of Punarvasune and Pushy a were held by the 

 Buddhists was alluded to in my observations on the south pillar edict 

 at Delhi, (Vol. VI. page 575).' 



Besides the or4er for reading Asoka's homily on specified days, par- 

 ticular allusion is made to the five-yearly festival or fast, which is also 

 provided for in the third of the Girndr edicts (see page 264). In re- 





