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On the Etymology and Interpretation of Certain Words and Phrases in the Aśoka Edicts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Extract
In the course of my tutorial work on the Palaeography and Epigraphy of India and Ceylon, I have had to read the Aśoka inscriptions with some of my pupils. As a result, I have come across the following words and phrases which to my mind seem to demand an interpretation other than that already supplied by scholars interested in the subject.
(1) Rock Edict III. Girnār. Parisā pi yute ānapayisati gaṇanāyaṁ hetuto ca vyaṁjanato ca.
This sentence, which occurs with dialectic differences in other versions of the third rock edict, has already been discussed by previous writers. I would, nevertheless, translate it thus:—“ The Council (of Mahāmātras) shall also give orders to the yuktas (in respect of these rules) in detail [i.e. item by item] regard being had to (their) raison d'être and to the letter (of the law).”
- Type
- List of Contributions
- Information
- Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , June 1931 , pp. 545 - 548
- Copyright
- Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1931
References
page 546 note 1 Possibly the genitive here has the signification “ instituted by ”.
page 547 note 1 Except in M. and Ś. See Pischel's Prakrit Grammar, §§ 202.
page 548 note 1 It is true that if we take the form rāno (Girnār, IV) to represent rānno (Skt.rājnaḥ) and regard it as typical of the Girnār dialect, then Skt. vrātya can be in Girnārdialect only vrācca, i.e. vāca or vrāca and not vaca or vraca. But there are no instancesto my knowledge of the retention of the Skt. medial ā before a double consonant without either reducing the latter in Pkt. and Pāli to a single consonant or shortening the vowel and allowing it to remain long only by position (cf. Pischel's Prakrit Grammar, par. 87). So Skt. lokāgra can in Pkt. and Pāli be either lokagga or lokāga, but never lokāgga, except perhaps in modern Indo-Āryan dialects through the later influence of Sanskrit.
page 548 note 2 See Professor Winternitz's interesting contribution to Die Zeitschrift für Buddhismus on the Vrātyas, where he has summarized the views of previous writers on the subject.