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CEYLON BRANCH— -ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, 



found on waste lands. But is not this a robbery ? your con- 

 duct is highly improper and unpriestlike. Having thus 

 reprimanded them, they reported the case to Budha, who 

 convened an assembly of the priests, and having investigated 

 the case, and reproved the offenders, added the following 

 words to the precept, «do©o9o qtiinsspsz*.*, gam a wa aran-ya 

 wa, in a village or uninhabited place, and commanded that 

 the law in its present form should be promulgated. It ac- 

 cordingly stands thus, <?> c33e3.gr tS-fsQ Gooih&o epdcs^ese^a rp^ 



^sq3. What priests soever shall, with a dishonest intention, 

 take either in an inhabited or uninhabited place,* a thing not 

 given to him, for the taking of which, the king having caught 

 a thief, might punish him corporally, or imprison him, or 

 banish him, saying, You are a thief, a wicked person, a va- 

 gabond, a robber : a priest taking such an ungiven thing is 

 overcome and excluded. 



It would appear that the original text of the law terminated 

 here, and that the definition of terms, the classification of 

 offences against the precept, and the cases illustrative of 

 those classifications, have been added at a later period. The 

 learned among the priests, however, affirm that these portions 

 are of equal authority with the others, as having been in- 

 cluded in the three convocations, when the whole of the 

 sacred books were recited. As exemplifying the course 

 adopted with reference to the other laws, I shall quote freely 

 from this Parajika. 



1. Definition of the different words used in this precept 

 frcsov yopana: Any one, of whatever tribe, fainity, name, 



* Literally, in a village or in a wilderness. 



