Adha-Puladeshu shavatâ Devânaṁ Piyashâ dhaṁṁamânushathi anuvataṁti.
Fig. 20.—Aśôka Inscription.
Translation.—The following is considered of the highest importance by the God-beloved, namely Conquest by law; this Conquest, however, is made by the God-beloved as well here (in his own kingdom) as among all his neighbours, even as far as six hundred yojanas (leagues), where the King of the Yonas (Greeks), Antiyoka by name, dwells; and beyond this Antiyoka where the four kings, Turamaya by name, Aṁtikina by name, Maka by name, Alikasudara by name (dwell farther away) in the south, where the Chodas and Paindas (Pandyas) (dwell), as far as Tambapanini (Ceylon) (where) the Hida king (dwells). Among the Viśas, the Vajris (Vrijis), the Yonas (Greeks), the Kamboyas (Kâbulîs), in Nâbhaka of the Nâbhitis, among the Bhojas, the Pitinikas, the Andhras and the Puladas (Pulindas), the teaching of the law of the God-beloved is universally followed.
This remarkable edict is found inscribed at four different places: Shahbâzgarhi in Yusufzai, Mânsahra in Hazâra of the Panjâb, Kâlsi above Dehra Dûn, and Girnâr in Kathiawâr. In the first two places the character employed is the Karoshtri, that is, the Baktrian Pali, and in the other two the Indian Pali. It is the Kâlsi inscription which is copied in the illustration. By the God-beloved (Piyeshâ or Piyadasi) is meant Aśôka himself. The Grecian kings named in the inscription have already been identified ([p. 52]), with the exception of Alikyashudale, who is taken to be Alexander, King of Epeiros. v. Senart’s Les Inscriptions de Piyadasi and Epigraphia Indica, vol. ii.
BIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX
Abisares is called by Arrian the King of the Indian Mountaineers, and may perhaps be not improperly described as the King of Kâśmîr. His name is derived from that of his kingdom, Abhisâra, which designated the mountainous country to the east of the Indus now known as Hazâra, a name in which some traces of the old seem to survive. After the fall of Mazaga, he sent troops across the Indus to aid the inhabitants in resisting Alexander. He sent embassies, however, to the conqueror both before and after the defeat of Pôros, whom he inclined to succour. Alexander allowed him to retain his kingdom, and when he died appointed his son to succeed him, as we learn from Curtius X. i.