Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/179

Rh and M.; se, G.; omitted in G. Fleet rendered 'this same king.'

The puzzle lies in the words nikrmi (ayâya, G.) sambodhiṁ. Most scholars take them to mean that Asoka entered on the 'eight-fold path' of 'right views, right feelings,' &c., which leads to saṁbodhi, or supreme knowledge in the Buddhist sense. The person starting on that path is described as saṁbodhi-parâyaṃo, 'intent on smhbodhi ' (Rhys Davids, Dialogues, 1st ser., p. 190; Buddhism (1899), p. 108). That interpretation may be correct. But D. R. Bhandarkar contends that the verbs must be interpreted in a physical sense, so that saṁbodhi should be taken as equivalent either to bodhi, meaning the bodhi tree, or to Mahâbodhi, meaning the temple at Bōdh Gayā (Ind. Ant., vol. xlii (1913), p. 159). That interpretation seems to be possible, but I am inclined to accept the general opinion.

Asoka in his programme for 'pious tours,' as usual, followed prescribed rules. The Arthaśâstra (Bk. i, chap. 21) directs that the king attended by trusty bodyguards armed with weapons shall give interviews to saints and ascetics.' Compare also the passage from ibid., chap. I9, quoted in the comment on R. E. VI. The moralists treated hunting as one of the four heinous vices due to desire, namely, hunting, gambling, women, and drinking, some writers considering hunting to be worse than gambling, but the author of the Arthaśâstra (Bk. viii. chap. 3) points out that the practice of the chase has its good side. 'Elders' presumably mean the honoured senior members of the Buddhist saṁgha. The concluding words bhâge (bhagi) aṁñe (aṁñi) are nominatives in apposition to rati, 'pleasuring.' Senart and Büler's rendering 'in exchange' is not strictly accurate, although it gives the general sense. Asoka seems to mean that his virtuous conduct has given him a different and better share of what is really worth having than that enjoyed by his frivolous predecessors.

Except for the doubt about saṁbodhi the translation of this edict may be accepted as settled.