Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/186

184 an earlier passage. Bahukâ was treated as an adjective meaning 'large' by Bühler.

The Censors or High Officers of the Law of Piety have been fully discussed in the comment on R. E. V. The similar officers appointed specially to look after the morals of the women evidently were a later institution, because when R. E. V was issued the duty of superintending the female establishments of the royal family was left in the hands of the officials responsible for the general enforcement of the Dhaṁma.

Nobody knows the exact meaning of vachabhûmikû, equivalent to vraja-°, as in R. E. VI. The officials alluded to may be the Superintendents of Pastures, whose duties are deﬁned in Arthaśâstra Bk. ii, chap. 34. That work contains many provisions about the regulation of pasture lands. Vraja, as we have seen, means a herd of domestic animals. It would be possible to treat Vraja-bhûmi as a proper name, the land of Braj near Mathurâ. (Muttra). But it is not apparent why the vajrabhûmikas should be selected for mention here. Nikâya is a general term for a class, body, or community. Here it evidently refers to official bodies or hoards. With the exception of the one obscure term above noticed, this edict, although expressed in unusually abstract language, is fully intelligible.

All the Indian sects, creeds, or forms of religion had much in common; and most of the ancient Indian kings were tolerant of religious or sectarian differences. The persecutions which occurred occasionally were exceptional, as observed ante, pp. 62, 63.

The subject of the edict is illustrated by one of the 'Happy Sayings of Akbar, that 'every sect favourably regards him who is faithful to its precepts, and in truth he is to be commended' (Âîn, transl. Jarrett, vol. iii, p. 391). The Arthaśâstra (Bk. xiii, chap. 5) goes so far as to advise that the king who annexes foreign territory should follow his new subjects 'in their faith with which they celebrate their national, religious, and congregational festivals or amusements. . . . He should always hold religious life in high esteem.' Readers of Machiavelli will remember the similar counsels in The Prince.

The edict was engraved on a separate boulder at Shâhbâzgarhi,