DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2371#0210
188 CAVE-TEMPLES OF WESTERN INDIA.
respectfulness, self-control, and charity, constitute true piety, and
alone are meritorious. In the tenth he resigns all ambition, except
the observance of moral duty ; and in the eleventh he praises dharma
or religious virtue and charity ; but in the twelfth declares peace as
more precious than beneficence, and proclaims that intrinsic worth
is founded on discretion of speech, so that " no man may praise his
own, or condemn another sect, or despise it on unsuitable occasions ;
on all manner of occasions respect is to be shown. Whatever of
good a man confers on any one of a different persuasion tends to tin-
advantage of his own, but by acting in an opposite way he injures
his own and offends the other sect also." The thirteenth tablet is a
long one, and very unfortunately the repairers of the road that leads
towards Girnar, some 60 years ago, seem to have broken off a large
piece from the base of the stone, and so damaged what remains
that it scarcely admits of translation; and the unsatisfactoriness
of the copies hitherto made of the Kapur-di-Giri version has ren-
dered them insufficient to make up the loss. The remaining words,
too, make us regret this; for the thirteenth says " And the Yona
King besides, by whom the cliattaro (four) kings, Turamayo (Ptole-
maios), Antikona (Antigonos), Maga (Magas of Cyrene), and Alix-
asunari (Alexander II.) both here and in foreign countries, everywhere
(the people) follow the doctrine of the religion of Devanampriya
wheresoever it reacheth." *
The presence of this important inscription, we may naturally sup-
pose, was not the only indication of Buddhism here, and that it was
soon followed, if not preceded, by Viharas and other works. The
remains of one sMpa is known to exist in the valley at the foot of
Girnar, and possibly careful exploration might bring others to light.
The same stone that bears the Asoka inscription has also a long
one of Rudra Daman, one of the Kshatrapa dynasty of kings who
seem to have ruled over Malwa and Gujarat during the second,
third, and fourth centuries. Previous to them, if not of their race,
1 The date of these kings has already been diseussed at length, ante, p. 23. 1 e
inscriptions themselves have repeatedly been published. Eecently in an exhaust"
manner by General Cunningham, in his Corpus Inscriptionum hidicantm, Calcu :
1877, but unfortunately without noticing Mr. Burgess' recent most accurate impres-
sion from the rock itself, and his transcript, with the translations and emendations*
Professor H. Kern, of Leyden, and others, as set forth in his Second Beport, 1»<
pp. 96 to 127.
respectfulness, self-control, and charity, constitute true piety, and
alone are meritorious. In the tenth he resigns all ambition, except
the observance of moral duty ; and in the eleventh he praises dharma
or religious virtue and charity ; but in the twelfth declares peace as
more precious than beneficence, and proclaims that intrinsic worth
is founded on discretion of speech, so that " no man may praise his
own, or condemn another sect, or despise it on unsuitable occasions ;
on all manner of occasions respect is to be shown. Whatever of
good a man confers on any one of a different persuasion tends to tin-
advantage of his own, but by acting in an opposite way he injures
his own and offends the other sect also." The thirteenth tablet is a
long one, and very unfortunately the repairers of the road that leads
towards Girnar, some 60 years ago, seem to have broken off a large
piece from the base of the stone, and so damaged what remains
that it scarcely admits of translation; and the unsatisfactoriness
of the copies hitherto made of the Kapur-di-Giri version has ren-
dered them insufficient to make up the loss. The remaining words,
too, make us regret this; for the thirteenth says " And the Yona
King besides, by whom the cliattaro (four) kings, Turamayo (Ptole-
maios), Antikona (Antigonos), Maga (Magas of Cyrene), and Alix-
asunari (Alexander II.) both here and in foreign countries, everywhere
(the people) follow the doctrine of the religion of Devanampriya
wheresoever it reacheth." *
The presence of this important inscription, we may naturally sup-
pose, was not the only indication of Buddhism here, and that it was
soon followed, if not preceded, by Viharas and other works. The
remains of one sMpa is known to exist in the valley at the foot of
Girnar, and possibly careful exploration might bring others to light.
The same stone that bears the Asoka inscription has also a long
one of Rudra Daman, one of the Kshatrapa dynasty of kings who
seem to have ruled over Malwa and Gujarat during the second,
third, and fourth centuries. Previous to them, if not of their race,
1 The date of these kings has already been diseussed at length, ante, p. 23. 1 e
inscriptions themselves have repeatedly been published. Eecently in an exhaust"
manner by General Cunningham, in his Corpus Inscriptionum hidicantm, Calcu :
1877, but unfortunately without noticing Mr. Burgess' recent most accurate impres-
sion from the rock itself, and his transcript, with the translations and emendations*
Professor H. Kern, of Leyden, and others, as set forth in his Second Beport, 1»<
pp. 96 to 127.