Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/207

205 fortnight, as well as on the Tishya and Punarvasu days, on the full-moon days of the three seasons, and on festivals, the castration of bulls must not be performed, nor may he—goats, rams, boars, or other animals liable to castration be castrated.

On the Tishya, Punarvasu, and seasonal full-moon days, and during the fortnights of the seasonal full-moons the branding of horses and oxen must not be done.

During the period that elapsed until I had been consecrated twenty—six years twenty-ﬁve jail deliveries have been effected.'

Comment

My former translation stands, except for slight verbal emendations. The animals, of which the names remain untranslated, have not been identified.

The code of regulations, although based on ancient Brahmanical practices, bears the impress of Asoka’s personal decisions. It applied to the whole empire. R. E. I was concerned only with the animals previously slaughtered for the royal kitchen and for the distribution of meat doles at merry-makings. The legislator does not attempt to forbid either the killing of animals generally, or the use of meat and ﬁsh for food. He contents himself with hampering and restricting those practices by stringent regulations which must have been extremely oppressive (ante, p. 57). It is probable that the existence of such an irritating code may have had. much to do with the break-up of the Maurya empire after Asoka's death.

The identity of the animals mentioned has been discussed at length by Bühler (Ep. Ind., ii. pp. 2 59-61); and by Manmohan Chakravarti in his monograph, 'Animals in the Inscriptions of Piyadasi' (Mem. A. S. B., vol. i (1906), pp. 861-74). My translation gives the results, certain or probable. 'Female tortoises,' ḍuḷi (not duḍi as previously read, Lüders). 'Monkeys' seems to be the most plausible rendering of okapiṁde. The creature is said to have been a thief of monks' rations, a character which suits the monkey best. 'Grey doves,' setakapote,