Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/146

144 as described were written either at the capital or at the head quarters of one or other of the viceroys, and then made over to skilled stone—cutters for incision on the rocks and pillars. In the extreme north-west the Kharoshthî alphabet was used as being the best known locally; throughout the rest of the empire the Brâhmî script was employed. The language was invariably a form of Prakrit, the vernacular language of the day, closely allied to Sanskrit, especially that of the Vedic variety, on the one hand, and to the modern vernaculars of the country on the other. The proclamations published in the home provinces are in the dialect of Magadha; those issued in more remote regions exhibit local peculiarities in spelling, vocabulary, and grammar. The various texts of the same edict sometimes differ to a small extent in substance, certain versions being fuller than others.

Repetitions, after the manner of the Buddhist scriptures, are frequent, and were inserted designedly, as is explained in the Epilogue to the Fourteen Rock Edicts. The style was supposed by the earlier interpreters to be exceedingly uncouth and to display lack of facility in prose composition. But now that accurate texts are available and the language is better understood, the style is found to possess a considerable amount of force and simple dignity. The desire to give the sovereign’s own words often, especially in the Kalinga Edicts, involves transitions from the third person to the ﬁrst, which are embarrassing to