¹ The Rai Bahadur thinks (pp. 21 ff., 33) that Aśōka refers to the construction of such divine figures when in his Minor Rock-inscriptions he says that “the gods who previously did not mingle [with men] in Jambūdvīpa have now been made to mingle”. This seems unlikely. Aśōka speaks of the mingling of gods with men as a result of his propagation of the Faith, whereas some, perhaps many, of these divine figures, as our author admits, were constructed before his reign; and moreover it is hardly usual to apply the term dēva to animals such as bulls and lions. Aśōka, I suspect, refers in this connexion to the common belief that various gods are incarnated in the person of a righteous king, and means that the rulers of India—himself and his governors—have now become “godly”, literally inspired by deities.