Page:Asoka - the Buddhist Emperor of India.djvu/54

52 feel assured that Mahendra or Mahinda, the apostle of Ceylon, was the brother, not the son of Asoka. As to the conversion of the king and people of the island, I hold that it was only begun by Mahendra, that the existence of his sister Sanghamitrâ is doubtful, and that the chroniclers' accounts of Mahendra's proceedings should be treated as edifying romances resting on a basis of fact, the extent of which cannot be determined precisely.

The thirteenth and fourteenth 'regnal years' ( 257, 256) were busy ones for Asoka, marking great advance in his spiritual development and religious policy. Two (Nos. III and IV) of the Fourteen Rock Edicts are expressly dated in the thirteenth, while No. V mentions the fourteenth, 'regnal year.' In the localities where all the fourteen edicts occur it is clear that the whole set was engraved at once. The publication, therefore, may be dated in 256. The two special Kalinga Edicts, which were substituted in the newly conquered province for Nos. XI-XIII of the series, may be assigned to the same period, which also witnessed the dedication of costly caves in the Barâbar Hills near Gayâ to the use of the non-Buddhist Âjîvika ascetics and the institution of quinquennial official transfers for the purpose of public instruction in the Law of Piety. Officers of all ranks, when serving in their several jurisdictions, were directed to undertake the business of propaganda in addition to their ordinary duties.