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Notes on the Greek Version of Aśoka's Twelfth and Thirteenth Rock Edicts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

K. R. Norman
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Extract

1. A block of stone inscribed with a Greek ( = Gk.) version of the latter part of Aśsoka's Rock Edict ( = RE) XII and the beginning of RE XIII was discovered at Kandahar in Afghanistan in 1963. The text was published in 1964 by D. Schlumbergerand again in the same year by É. Benveniste ( = B.) in Journal Asiatique (=JA). A condensed version of these two articles, in English, was published in Epigraphia Indica (= Ep. Ind.) in 1968.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 104 , Issue 2 , April 1972 , pp. 111 - 118
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1972

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References

1 Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 1964, 126–40.

2 “Edits d'Asoka en traduction grecque”, JA, 1964, 137–157Google Scholar.

3 Schlumberger, D. and Benveniste, É., “A new Greek inscription of Asoka at Kandahar”, Ep. Ind., XXXVII, 193–200Google Scholar.

4 IIJ, X, 166.

5 The word “scribe” is used in the very widest sense, to include all those who were responsible for the transmission of the REs, but especially the person(s) who made the translation into any particular regional dialect (see TPS, 1970, 122, n. 6).

6 Bloch, J., Les inscriptions d'Asoka, Paris, 1950 (= Bloch).Google Scholar

7 Thapar, R., Aśoka and the decline of the Mauryas, O.U.P., 1961, 250–266Google Scholar (= Thapar).

8 Ed. D. C. Sircar, Ep. Ind., XXXII, 1–28 (= Sircar).

9 I follow the division into sections given by E. Hultzsch, The inscriptions of Aśoka (Corpus Inscriptionum Indicarum, I) (= Hultzsch).

10 It is noteworthy that the version at Girnār has vacīguti instead of vaca-. Although Ardha-Māgadhī has both vaya- and vai-gutti, Pāli has only vacīgutti. Is this another example of knowledge of Buddhist terminology at Girnār? (See TPS, 1970, 125–6.)

11 The word “exemplar” is used to mean any document which was copied or translated anywhere in the train of transmission (see TPS, 1970, 122, n. 7).

12 For the use of sibilants at K. see BSOAS, XXXIII, 1, 1970, 138–9.

13 Sandesara, B. J. and Thaker, J. P., Lexicographical studies in “Jaina Sanskrit”, Baroda, 1962, 221–2Google Scholar.

14 Bailey, H. W., “Kusanica”, BSOAS, XIV, 427–8Google Scholar.

15 M. Mayrhofer, Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindischen, II, 265.

16 Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary (= MW), s.V. aprakarana-.

17 See IIJ, X, 169.

18 See TPS, 1970, 133. The scribe was perhaps helped in his “restoration” of the faulty exemplar by his recollection of save hite sayamaṃ bhāvasudhi ca ichaṃti “for they all desire self-control and purity of thought”, used of pāsaṃḍā in RE VII (B).

19 Sircar thought that -vāya was derived < -vāda “speech”, but I am unable to accept this suggestion (see BSOAS, XXXIII, 137).

20 MW, s.v. samavāya-.

21 Schlumberger, D., Robert, L., Dupont-Sommer, A., Benveniste, É., “Une bilingue gréco-araméenne d'Asoka”, JA, 1958, 1–48.Google Scholar

22 It occurs in Pāli: sussūsā sutavaḍḍhanī, sutaṃ paññāya vaḍḍhanaṃ “desire to hear increases hearing; hearing is an increaser of wisdom” (Theragāthā, 141). The commentary explains: sussūsā ti, sotabbayuttassa sabbasutassa sotum icchā “desire to hear” (Theragāthā-aṭṭhakathā, ii, 19).

23 Hultzsch, 42.

24 Hultzsch, 42, n. 6.

25 MW, s.v. bahu-.

26 Hultzsch, 67, n. 6.

27 See BSOAS, XXXIII, 137.

28 Sircar thought that -vāya was derived < -vāda “speech” (see n. 19 above).

29 See IIJ, X, 166.

30 MW, s.v. suvihita-.

31 Pāia-sadda-mahaṇṇavo states: suvihia [suvihita] sundara ācarana vālā, sadācāri. The Ardha-Māgadhi dictionary gives: suvihiya [-ta] “(one) who observes a prescribed rite”.

32 sādhu suvihitāna dassanaṃ… tasmā sādhu sataṃ samāgamo. Cf. sādhu ariyānaṃ dassanaṃ (Dhammapada, 206).

33 silādigunehi susaṃvihitattā bhāvānaṃ parānuddayāya suṭṭhu vihitadhammadesanānaṃ ariyānaṃ dassanaṃ sādhū ti yojanā (Theragāthā-aṭṭhakathā, i, 177).

34 Pillar Edict I (G).

35 MW, s.v. agrabhū-.

36 See Burrow, T., “Spontaneous cerebrals in Sanskrit”, BSOAS, XXXIV, 1971, 538–559CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 A. C. Woolner, Asoka text and glossary, pt. II, s.v. paṭibhāge.

38 MW, s.v. bhāga-.

39 MW, s.v. pratikāmin-.

40 As seems to have been the case at Sopārā (see TPS, 1970, 121, n. 2).