Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/171

Rh penalties, or [the grant of] release, on the grounds of motive, having children, instigation or advanced years.

Here [in the capital; "at Pāṭaliputra," G.], and in all provincial towns, in the female establishments of my brothers and sisters, as well as of other relatives, they are everywhere employed. These Censors of the Law of Piety are engaged everywhere in my dominions, among the subordinate officials of that Law. with regard to the concerns of the Law, the establishment of the Law, and the business of almsgiving.

For that purpose has this scripture of the Law been written, that it may long endure, and that my subjects may act accordingly.'

Comment

The subject of the Censors is further treated in XII and P. E. VII. They are styled the High Officers or Ministers of the Law of Piety to distinguish them from their colleagues of equal rank who were the High Officers (mahâ-mâtrâḥ) for the ordinary business of administration. Probably they had the power of life and death, so that a strict administration of their office might easily result in intolerable tyranny, and it is likely that in practice it did so result. Asoka dwells only upon the humane, merciful side of their jurisdiction, which extended even to the ladies of his own family. The appointment of more or less similar oﬂicials by various Hindu governments in times and localities widely apart is recorded, and it is known that in such cases the prescribed rules of conduct were enforced by tremendous penalties, including death.

Professor D. R. Bhandarkar points out that in the Deccan of the Ândhra. or Sâtavâhana period, before and after the Christian era, persons of the highest social rank are distinguished in suudry inscriptions as Mahâ-raṭhis, Mahâ-bhojas, and Mahâ-senapatis. All the three terms seem to be applied to 'feudatory chieftains.' The Mahâ-bhojas appear to have held the present Ṭhâṇâ and Kolâbâ Districts of the Bombay