7 



[Read 5th February, 1873.] 



NOTE ON THE IDENTITY OF PIYADASI AND ASOKA. 



BY MUDALIYAR LOUIS DE ZOYSA, CHIEF TRANSLATOR 

 TO GOVERNMENT. 



When James Prinsep discovered the lost alphabet of 

 ancient India, and read the rock inscriptions at Delhi, Girnar, 

 Cuttack and Afghanistan, which had baffled the attempts 

 of all previous Orientalists and others to decipher, he found 

 that they were written in the Pali language, and were 

 edicts issued by a king whose name was " Devanampiya 

 Piyadasi Raja," " Piyadasi, the beloved of the gods;" but he 

 was unable to find the name of such a sovereign in any 

 Indian history, or record. He however lost no time in 

 communicating his wonderful discovery to his friend and 

 fellow-labourer in Ceylon, the late Honourable George 

 Turnour, who at once identified the sovereign as "Asoka " 

 or " Dharmasoka," the great Buddhist Emperor of India, 

 under whose auspices Buddhist Missionaries were sent to 

 Ceylon and various other countries in Asia, and in support 

 of his statement, quoted a passage from the Dipa Vanso, an 

 ancient history of Ceylon. Mr. Prinsep in acknowledging 

 the service thus rendered to him by Mr. Turnour, wrote as 

 follows :-— " The first correction in point of importance, 

 comes, as usual, from Ceylon, the very Lanka (to apply its 

 own fabulous prerogative metaphorically,) the very first 

 meridian w T hence the true longitude of all ancient Indian 

 history seems destined to be calculated ! " And again, 

 " Mr. Turnour has thus most satisfactorily cleared up a 

 difficulty that might long have proved a stumbling-block to 



