North Indian Inscriptions

THE SIDDAPURA EDICTS OF ASOKA.

savachhare, ‘one year.’ The correct total of the period during which the Beloved of the gods declares himself to have been connected with the Buddhists, is thus about nine years. With respect to the other, equally or perhaps more important question, who the Vyûtha or Vivutha was and to what the numerals refer, the Śiddâpura inscriptions yield, as far as I can see, no positive results. I shall discuss these problems again in the Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, and will note here only this much, that I still take the Vivutha to be the Tathâgata, and still refer the numerals to the number of years elapsed since the Nirvâṇa.

TEXTS.¹

No. I.

1 [S]uvaṁṇagirîtê² ayaputasa mahâmâtâṇaṁ cha vachan[e]na I[si]lasi mahâmâtâ ârogiyaṁ vataviyâ hevaṁ cha vataviyâ [||*]

First Edict.

..............................................................Devâṇaṁ piye âṇapayati [|*]
2 Adhikân[i] aḍhâtiyâni [va]sâni ya hakaṁ . . . . no tu kho bâḍhaṁ pakaṁte husaṁ [|*] Ekaṁ savachharaṁ sâtireke tu kho sa[ṁ]vachhar[a]ṁ³
3 yaṁ mayâ Saṁghe upayîte bâḍhaṁ cha me pakaṁte [|*] Iminâ chu kâlena amisâ samânâ munisâ Jaṁbudîpas[i]
4 misâ devehi [|*] [Paka]masa⁴ hi iyaṁ phale [|*] No hîyaṁ sakye mahâtpeneva pâpotave [|*] Kâmaṁ tu⁵ kho khudakena pi
5 paka[mami]ṇeṇa⁶ vipule svage sakye ârâdhetave [|*] E[t]âyaṭhâya iyaṁ sâvaṇe sâvâpite [|*]
6 . . . . . . mahâtpâ cha imaṁ pakame[yu] . i⁷ aṁtâ cha mai⁸ jâneyu chiraṭhitîke cha iyaṁ
7 pa . . . . . [|*] Iyaṁ cha aṭhe vaḍhisiti vipulaṁ pi cha vaḍhisiti avaradhiyâ diyaḍiyaṁ
8 [vaḍh]isit .⁹ [|*] Iyṁ cha sâvaṇ . sâv . p . te Vyûthena 256 [||*]

. Second Edict.

....... Se hevaṁ Devâṇaṁ piye
9 âha [|*] mâtâpitisu susûs[i]taviye¹⁰ [|*] Hemeva garut[vaṁ]¹¹ prâṇesu drahyitavyaṁ [|*] Sachaṁ
10 vataviyaṁ [|*] Se ime dhaṁmaguṇâ pavatitaviyâ [|*] Hemeva aṁtevâsinâ
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......¹ From inked estampages, received from Dr. Hultzsch.
......² The sa is mutilated on the right, but the u-stroke is distinct.
......³ Possibly savachharaṁ, as the indentation, taken for as anusvâra, is rather regular in its outlines.
......⁴ The first syllable is damaged, but not pâ, as the photograph might seem to indicate.
......⁵ The ta consists here of a semicircle, open below, and a vertical standing above it, in accordance with the practice prevailing in much later inscriptions.
......⁶ Only the upper portions of the two ma have been preserved, and the second very imperfectly.
......⁷ The yu is faintly visible on the impression. Read ti.
......⁸ Read me.
......⁹ The lower portions alone of vaḍh have been preserved.
......¹⁰ The impression shows faint traces of the vertical stroke of the vowel i.
......¹¹ The impression shows traces of a probably angular sign which was attached to the lower right of the ta and of the anusvâra. There is thus a presumption that the reading was garutvaṁ ; but garutaṁ is not absolutely excluded.