Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/184

182 'association,' which Mr. Thomas prefers. The concluding clause is phrased differently in G. without change of meaning.

The document is aptly illustrated by an inscription of Niśśanka Malla, King of Ceylon ( 1187–96), which records that 'this pious monarch enjoyed the bliss of almsgiving, as he sat granting largess with great happiness, hearing many joyous shouts of "sâdhu" and the like, and imparting the gift of piety (dâna-dharmma), which is the noblest of all gifts' (Arch. S. Rep. Ceylon, for 1902 (lxvii of 1907), p. 11). Niśśanka Malla, like Asoka, bestowed his bounty alike on all sects and classes, on Brahmans and Buddhists, on natives and foreigners.

Another illustration comes from an unexpected place, the first extant letter of Cromwell, dated at St. Ives, Jan. 11, 1635 (Carlyle), which lays down the propositions that 'building of hospitals provides for men’s bodies; to build material temples is judged a work of piety; but they that procure spiritual food, they that build up spiritual temples, they are the men truly charitable, truly pious.'

EDICT XII TOLERATION (G. text; no material variations in other texts.)

'His Sacred and Gracious Majesty the King does reverence to men of all sects, whether ascetics or householders, by gifts and various forms of reverence.

His Sacred Majesty, however, cares not so much for gifts or external reverence as that there should be a growth of the essence of the matter in all sects. The growth of the essence of the matter assumes various forms, but the root of it is restraint of speech, to wit, a man must not do reverence to his own sect or disparage that of another without reason. Depreciation should be for specific reasons only, because the sects of other people all deserve reverence for one reason or another.