1837.] on the Columns of Delhi, Allahabad, Betiah, SfC. 597 



congregations ; while I pray with every variety of prayer for those 

 who differ from me in creed, that they following after my pnoper ex- 

 ample may with me attain unto eternal salvation : wherefore the 

 present edict of religion is promulgated in this twenty-seventh year 

 of my anointment. 



Thus spake king Deva'nampiya Piyadasi :— Kings of the olden 

 time have gone to heaven under these very desires. How then among 

 mankind may religion (or growth in grace) be increased ? yea through 

 the conversion of the humbly-born shall religion increase. 



6 kimankdni sukham avahdmiti 7 ; tathacha vidahami ; hemevd 



7 savanikdyesu pativekhdmi 8 ; savapdmndapime pujitd 



8 vividhdya pujdyd echa iyarn dtand pachupagamane 



9 seme mokhyamaie 9. Sadiavisativasa abhisitename' 



10 iyam dhammalipi likhapitd. 



11 Devdnampiya piyadasi Ldjd hevam Ahd. Ye atikata 



12 ataram rdjanne \0, hesa hevam ichhdsu. Kathamjane 



13 dhammavadhiya vadheyd ? nichajanne 11 anuriipdyd dhammavadhiyd 



7. Sanskrit, f^rqf^.'SJ*^ *3R«T^Tfa Tffi, ' bow many pleasures I forego ;' 

 ■^Tpq- f^^rfiT, ' and I altogether burn and destroy.' 



8. Hemevd, for imanva or imaneva, Sanskrit, xj( "^ ^*3 f*T3fiTS< 1 3r 

 SrfaT^nfa— nikdya, an assembly, may signify the congregations at each of the 

 principal vihdras or monasteries. 



9. The construction of this passage is not quite grammatical : echa must he 

 read evamcha ; then in Sanskrit -^q ^JTWT : T"'8T<pT*T3 : l*r ^T ^ ^TW1?W, 

 ♦ this (is) for the following after (or obedience) of the soul (myself) as connected 

 with my faith or desire of salvation,' — the word upagamane in what is called 

 the nimitta saptami case. I have given what appears the obvious sense. 



The inscriptions at Allahabad, Mathia and Bakra all end with this sentence : 

 and there is an evident recommencement in the Feroz tablets as if the remainder 

 had been superadded at a later period. 



10. I am by no means confident that the precise sense has been apprehended 

 in the following curious paragraph. The word katham, how, implies a question 

 asked, to which the answer is accordingly found immediately following, and a 

 second question is proposed with the same preliminary " thus spake the raja" 

 and solved in like manner, each term rising in logical force so as to produce a 

 climax, that by conversion of the poor the rich would be worked upon, and by 

 their example even kings' sons would be converted ; thus shewing the necessity 

 and advantage of continual preaching. For atikata, my pandit reads atikrdnta, 

 makiug the whole line ; ^ ^jfTT^T'rfT *HcTC«r TT^TTT'. *W ^ T^^ aT^ST^ 



4 H 



