1837.] on the Columns of Delhi, Allahabad, Betiah, &>c. 575 



diately following the catalogue of birds, " All fowls that creep upon 

 all four shall be an abomination unto you/' presents a curious coin- 

 cidence with the expression of our tablet * savechatapade ye pati bhogan 

 no ete,' which comes after gdmakapote, the tame dove. 



But the edict by no means seems to interdict the use of animal 

 f 00 d — probably this would have been too great an innovation. It 

 restricts the prohibition to particular days of fast and abstinence, on 

 the chief of which, fowls that have been killed are not even to be 

 offered for sale — and on these days, beasts of burthen are to be 

 exempted from labour : * the ox even shall not be tied up in his stall/ 

 The sheep, goat, and pig seem to have been the staple of animal 

 food at the period — they are expressly mentioned as kept for fattening, 

 and are only not to be slaughtered while with young or giving milk ; 

 but merit is ascribed to the abstaining from animal food altogether. 



Ratna Paula tells me no similar rules are to be found in the Pali 

 works of Ceylon, nor are the particular days set apart for fasting or 

 upavdsun in the inscription, exactly in accordance with modern Bud- 

 dhistic practice which observes only the afyhami and panaradassami, or 

 8th and 15th of each half lunation, (that is, nearly every 7th day.) All 

 the days inserted are however of great weight in the Hindu calendar 

 of festivals, and the sectarians may not yet have relinquished them. 

 Thus the two lunar days mentioned in the south tablet, tishya (or 

 pushyaj and punarvasu, though now disregarded, are known from the 

 Lalitu Vistdra to have been strictly attended to by the early priests. 

 In the 14th leaf we have the following example. 



4 The priests perceiving the people of the cities of Bodhisatwa to be sleeping, 

 and knowing too that the middle of the night had arrived, and knowing that the 

 moon had entered into the mansion of Pushya ; knowing that this was the time 

 of night to depart (for some religious observance), called their disciples.' 



In one respect the mention of these days is of high interest, as proving 

 that the luni-solar system of the brahmanswasthe same as we see it now, 

 three centuries before our era, and not the modern invention Bkntley 

 and some others have pretended. The astronomy of the Purdnas was 

 (as Mr. Wilkinson has shewn) as much a bone of contention be- 

 tween the two sects, as were their other branches of metaphysics. 



None of the fierce conflicts between the followers of the two religions 

 had yet probably taken place. Occupying the throne and the court it had 

 4e 



