1837.1 on Me Columns of Delhi, Allahabad, Betiah, #e. 599 



God resteth (?) verily this is religion, (or verily virtue shall there 

 increase.) 



Thus spake king Deva'nampiya Piyadasi : — Wherefore from this 

 very hour I have caused religious discourses to be preached ; I have 

 appointed religious observances — that mankind having listened there- 

 to shall be brought to follow in the right path and give glory unto 

 god, (Agni. ?) 



19 « (dyana) maye ham 15 dhamma vadhiydti etam. 



J)e vdnampiya piyadasi lAja hevam 



20 ahd. Esamehntha dhammasdvandni s&vapayami dhammdnusathini 



21 anusdsdmi 16. Etam jane suta anupatipajisati 17 agnim namisati 18. 



15. This sentence is unintelligible from the imperfection of two of the letters^ 

 The pandit would read -gj if ^Tfif ^|fq3n?^r# ^%W?fT T^ : l}ut tnis a PP ea »s 

 overstrained and without meaning. The last two words " dharm shall increase" 

 point out a meaning, that as (religion and conversion ?) go on, virtue itself shall 

 be increased. Adya may perhaps be read Aja, 



is. ircg^if w ^n*Tf«r ^rrewfa ^Tijstf«r (sub. ^TOTfir) ^«j*a%. 



< at this time I have ordered sermons to be preached (or ^f TJ^ft t0 W J son& ' or 

 TT<|T virtuous sermons) and I have established religious ordinances.' 



17. i£fnr 5»ihj "3" ^nj^fa SaffasjfTT * so that among men there shall be 

 conformity and obedience.' It may be read ir^f gjif • asr^r, ' which the people 

 having heard (shall obey), and I have preferred this latter reading because it 

 gives a nominative to the verb. 



18. The anomalous letter of the penultimate word seems to be a compound 



of g n i and anuswara, A which would make the reading agnim namisati 



H 



* and shall give praise unto, agni,' but no reason can be assigned for employing 

 such a Mithraic name for the deity in a Buddhist document. A facsimile alone 

 from the pillar can solve this difficulty, for we have here no other text to collate 

 with the Feroz l&t inscription. It is probably the same word which is illegible 

 in the 19th line. The only other name beginning with U a, which can well be 

 substituted, is U C Aja, a name of Brahma, Vishnu or Siva, or in general 



terms, ■ God.' Perhaps U £ Aja, * illusion personified as SakW — (Mbyd) 

 may have more of a Buddhistic acceptation. 



4 h 2 



