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officer and two or three other persons, might, considered as defamation, be a very venial offence; but such an imputation would have an obvious tendency to cause a serious breach of the peace.

On these grounds, we have determined to propose that defamation shall be made an offence, without any reference to its tendency to cause acts of illegal violence.

We considered whether it would be advisable to make a distinction between the different modes in which defamatory imputations may be conveyed: and we came to the conclusion that it would not be advisable to make any such distinction.

The last Chapter treats "Of Criminal Intimidation, Insult, and Annoyance," which are punishable with imprisonment, fine, or both.

We do not offer this epitome of the Code as more than a hasty endeavour to shew some of its general and particular features. Our readers will soon be in possession of the whole.

ON HEARING A MINAH SINGING LIKE A THRUSH.

I've lain on the banks of a crystal rill,

In the shade of the hawthorn in bloom,
A listening the mavis' and blackbird's trill,
Inhaling the blue-bell's perfume.

I've sat on the ground, 'mong the flowering broom,
Where the rich-flavoured strawberry twined,

And marked the rich song of the lark in the sky,
As he busily carolled his brisk notes on high,
To the white fleecy clouds consigned.

I've strayed in the depths of the greenwood shade,
In the shade of the pine-tree and yew,

Where the woodbine and ivy festooned in each glade,
O'er sprinkled with silvery dew;

And harked to the sound of the stock-dove's coo,

On the storm-beaten beech-tree sear,

While the tones of the cuckoo, the first of the Spring,
As he flew from each hedge-row on unsettled wing,
Fell softly and sweet on my ear.

I've roamed o'er the moorlands, where heath-bells bloomed,
When the curlew his swell wound high;

I've tracked up the mountains where dark storms gloomed,
And heard the wild eagle's cry.

The note of each sea-bird from Gunga to Skye,

I've marked as I pitched o'er the wave;

Been lulled by the sound of the bulbul's lay;
Been wakened by matins from that orange spray :
But none half the pleasure ere gave,

As that mimic Thrush in its bamboo pen,

Which the landsman has taught to sing,
The wood-notes wild of his own Highland glen,
On the first sunny morning of Spring.

Calcutta.

OOMANOONDA.

INTERPRETATIONS OF THE LATS, OR PILLARS, OF

HINDUSTAN.

Mr. Prinsep, the secretary of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, by a persevering study of the ancient characters on the Láts, or Pillars, of Delhi, Allahabad, Radhia, and Mattiah, and a skilful application of the results to the alphabet of the character, has succeeded in reading the celebrated inscription on Feroz's column at Delhi, which has so long baffled all attempts at interpretation. "This is the less to be wondered at," he observes, in his paper laid before the Society, and printed in its Journal for July, "when we find that five hundred years before, on the re-erection of the pillar, perhaps for the second or third time, by the emperor Feroz, the unknown characters were just as much a mystery to the learned, as they have proved at a later period. Round it,' says the author of the Haftaklim, 'have been engraved literal characters which the most intelligent of all religions have been unable to explain. Report says, this pillar is a monument of renown to the rájas, or Hindu princes, and that Feroz Shah set it up within his hunting-place: but on this head there are various traditions, which it would be tedious to relate.' Neither Muhammed Amin, the author of the Haftaklim, nor Ferishteh, in his account of Feroz's works, alludes to the comparatively modern inscription on the same pillar, recording the victories of Visala Deva, king of Sácambharí (or Sámbhar), in the twelfth century, of which Sir William Jones first, and Mr. Colebrooke afterwards, published translations in the first and seventh volumes of the Researches. This was in quite a modern type of Nágarí, differing about as much from the character employed on the Allahabad pillar to record the victories of Chandra and Samudra-gupta, as that type is now perceived to vary from the more ancient form originally engraven on both of these pillars; so that (placing Chandra-gupta in the third or fourth century, midway between Visala, in the Samvat year 1220, and the oldest inscription) we might have roughly deduced an antiquity of fourteen or fifteen centuries anterior to Visala's reign for the original lát alphabet, from the gradual change of form in the alphabetical symbols, had we no better foundation for fixing the period of these monuments.

"But, in my preceding notice, I trust that this point has been set at rest, and that it has been satisfactorily proved that the several pillars of Delhi, Allahabad, Mattiah, and Radhia, were erected under the orders of king Devánampiya Piyadasi, of Ceylon, about three hundred years before the Christian era. I have there also explained the nature of the document, and have now only to disclose its contents in detail, as far as my hasty scrutiny, and my very imperfect acquaintance with the languages of ancient India, will permit.

"The difficulties with which I have had to contend are of a very different nature from those presented by more modern inscriptions, where the sense has to be extracted from a mass of hyperbolical eulogy, and extravagant exaggeration, embodied still in very legible and classical Sanskrit. Here the case is opposite: the sentiments and the phraseology are perfectly simple and straightforward but the orthography is sadly vitiated-and the language differs essentially from every existing written idiom: it is, as it were, intermediate between the Sanskrit and the Pálí; and a degree of license is therefore requisite in selecting the Sanskrit equivalent of each word, upon which to base the interpretation-a license dangerous in the use, unless restrained within wholesome rules; for a skilful pandit will easily find a word to answer any purpose, if allowed to insert a letter, or alter a word ab libitum."

Mr. Prinsep then details the aids he had in his difficult enterprize-the

copies of the inscriptions in the society's portfolio, and in the Researches; and his operations in contriving a fount for the pillar character, which he terms an "ancient and highly elegant form of Nagari," and which is certainly more simple and easier to read than the more complicated letters of the (so called) "perfected" (Samskrita) alphabet of the Brahmins.

"The four inscriptions facing the four cardinal points on the pillar, appear to be enclosed in frames, and to be each complete in itself. These four edicts are repeated verbatim on the three other láts, with exception of the lower half of the eastern tablet, which is wanting in all, as is likewise the long inscription round the shaft below the separate tablets.

"On the other hand, the Allahabad pillar has five short insulated lines at foot, which are not to be found elsewhere. They are curious, from their allusion three times to the second queen of Devanampiya; but from the incompleteness of the lines on the right hand, the context cannot thoroughly be explained the three letters at the end of the third line look like numerals.

:

We might

Devanampiyasa vechanená savata vahamagá

Vataviya: eheta dutiyáyá devíye dáne.
Jambávadi kává alameva dána petha è (?)
Kichhi ganiyataye deviye sanáni ava.
Datíyáyá deviye titívalamatu evákiye.

translate the whole of the first line : देवानांप्रियस्य वचनेन सर्व्वतः ब्रह्मगाः वक्तयाः ' By the word of Devánam

piya-must be called a perfect ascetic, or Brahmagá.' The second line certainly

द्वितीयायादेया

records a gift, of the second queen ;' and the alame

vadána, a sufficiency of gifts of some particular kind. Kichhi ganiyatá dev, may be supposed to be the name of the lady, or kichhi may be kinchit, ‘some, little.' Senání, a general;' tili, for tritiya, 'third,' and other insulated words can be recognized, but without coherence.

"To return from this digression. The general object of Devanampiya's series of edicts is, according to my reading, to proclaim his renunciation of his former faith, and his adoption of the Buddhist persuasion, to which wholesome change he invites others from every rank in society, by a representation of its great excellency. He addresses his disciples, or devotees (for so I have been obliged to translate rajaká, as the Sanskrit, though I would have preferred rájaká, 'ministers,' had the first á been long), a number of specific rules for their guidance, with penalties of a comparatively mild nature, for any omission in their performance; but the chief drift of the writing seems directed to enhance the merits of the author; the continual recurrence of esa me kate, 'so have I done,' arguing rather a vaunt of his own acts, than an inculcation of virtue in others, unless by the force of example.

It is a curious fact that, although the intent of the royal convert seems to have been to spread every where the knowledge of his conversion, and of the virtuous acts to which it had given rise on his part, and further, to set forth the main principles of his new faith, yet the name of the author of that religion is no where distinctly or directly introduced, as Buddha, Gotama, Shákya muní, &c. At the end of the first sentence, indeed, the expression Sukatam kachhati, which I have supposed to be intended for sugatam gachhati, may be thought to contain one of Buddha's names, as Sugato (the welcome); but

>ven in this, the error in spelling makes the reading doubtful. In another place, I have rendered a final expression agnim namisati, 'shall give praise to Agní —a deity we are hardly at liberty to pronounce connected with the Buddhist worship, though points of agreement and harmony may be adduced. But in any case, Agní, if rendered generally, as 'god,' keeps him distinct from Buddha, 'the teacher,'-of whose deification no evidence is afforded by the inscription; for neither is there any allusion to images of him, nor to temples or shrines enclosing his relics; it is only by the general tenor of the dogmas inculcated, that we can pronounce it to relate to the Buddhist religion. The sacred name constantly employed-the true keystone of Shákya's reform-is Dhamma (or dharma), 'virtue;' upon the exceeding excellencies, and the incontestable supremacy of which divine attribute, the whole of his system seems to have originally rested, and by which it may have won its way to the hearts of a people whose inclinations were already imbued with admiration of this quality in their own ancient system, though it had since been mixed up with an unseemly mass of inconsistencies and gross idolatries; and the pious and reflecting must have been glad to reject them, when an opportunity was afforded of saving their consciences from the dreadful alternative of being thought to throw off all religion, if they discarded the one in which they were born and bred. Buddhism was, at that time, only sectarianism; a dissent from a vast proportion of the existing sophistry and metaphysics of the Brahmanical schools, without an absolute relinquishment of belief in their gods, or of conformity in their usages, and with adherence still to the milder qualities of the religion; to all, in short, that it contained of dharma―virtue, justice, law. The very term Devánampiya, 'beloved of the gods,' shows the retention of of the Hindu pantheon generally; and this might be easily confirmed, by reference to Mr. Cosma's note on the birth and life of Shákya.

"Those who have studied the mystics of Buddhism from the lucid dissertation of Mr. Hodgson, in the January and February numbers of last year's Journal, will know that Dharma is the second member of the Triámnáya, or triad (Buddha, Dharma, Sangha), according to the theistical school; while what Mr. Hodgson calls the atheistical school, exalts Dharma to the first place. With them, Dharma is Diva natura-matter as the sole entity, invested with intrinsic activity and intelligence, the efficient and material cause of all: Buddha is derivative from Dharma, is the active and intelligent force of nature, first put off from it, and then operating upon it: Sangha is the result of that operation; is embryotic creation, the type and sum of all specific forms, which are spontaneously evolved from the union of Buddha with Dharma.'* Happily, in our inscription, there is no necessity to resort to these subtleties of the schools, which have rendered a plain matter perplexed. The word is here evidently used in its simple sense of the law, virtue, or religion;' and though its gifts and excellencies are vaunted, there is no worship offered to it-no godhead claimed for it.

"The word dhamma is, in the document before us, generally coupled with another word, vadhi, in its several cases—dhamma-vadhi, dhamma-vadhiyá, &c. according to the Sanskrit grammatical rules of combination, or samása. The

most obvious interpretation of the word vadhi is found in the Sanskrit f

vriddhi, 'increase,' whence are derived the vernacular words barhná, 'to increase;' barhtú, 'increasing;' barhaí, ' increase,' &c., differing imperceptibly in pronunciation from the vadhi and vadhitá of the inscription. The constant

* Journ. Asiat. Soc., vol. v. page 37.

recurrence of the same expression would lead to the conclusion that the religion of Buddha was then generally known by this compound title, as the increase of virtue,' 'the expansion of the law,' in allusion to the rapid proselytism which it sought and obtained. Against this interpretation, if it be urged that the dental dh is in other cases used for the Sanskrit dh, as in the word dharmma itself; in vadha, murder;' bandha, 'bound,' &c.; such objection may be met by instancing other undoubted cases, where the cerebral dh is used for the Sanskrit ddh, as in adhakosayáni (for arddha), ‘half kos;' and in like manner, the dental rth is generally expressed by the cerebral

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th, as atha, athiäya, for अर्थ, अर्थीय. The only other word by which

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vadhi can be rendered, is the Sanskrit vritti, occupation, turning.' Now, we have examples of the dental t being represented by the cerebral d in the inscription, especially when double, or combined with p, as sadda for sapta (or satta, Páli), 'seven ;' and in one compartment (the commencement of the under inscription round the shaft), the same letter, dd, is used indifferently for dh, in the very word, dhamma vaddiya, which we are discussing. It is hardly possible to imagine that two expressions, so strikingly similar in orthography as dhammavadhi and dhammavatti, or vaddi, yet of such opposite meaning, should be applied to the same thing. One must be wrong; and I should have had no question which to prefer, were it not for a curious expression I remembered to have met with in the Tibetan translation of the Buddhist volumes. Of the twelve principal acts in Shákya's life, described in the Gyacherrolpa (S. Lalitavistára), the tenth is translated by Mr. Csoma Korosi, 'He turns the wheel of the law, or publishes his doctrine;' now, it was possible that

the Sanskrit of this expression might be found धर्व वृत्रिंविवत्रयते

or in the Páli, dhammavutti vavethayati, vutti signifying explication, or 'doctrine,' as well as 'wheel.'

"Finding a copy of the Lalita Vistára, in Sanskrit, amongst Mr. Hodgson's valuable collection of Buddhist works, transferred from the College of Fort William to the Asiatic Society's library, I requested my pandit, Kamalákánta, to look into it for this expression, wheel of the law,' adopted by the Tibetan translators; and he was not long in extracting an abundance of examples of its use thus, in the 299th leaf, in the 25th adhyaya, Tathágata (Buddha) is made to say:

'I will go to Benares. Having arrived at the city of Kásha, I will turn the wheel of the law, which is revolving amongst mankind (i.e. I will run my religious course).'

"The word dharmachakra is here distinct enough, and not to be confounded with our dhammavadhi. The following example, from the 213th leaf, I therefore add, less to strengthen the evidence, than as a curious employment of many of the expressions met with in other parts of our inscription, particularly in the eastern tablet:

'Having bowed the head in reverence, do thou, oh Bhagaván, be pleased to set about turning the wheel of the law of him that hath firmly embraced Tathagata. Turn thou the wheel of the law, oh Sugata! For the benefit of much people, for the delight of much people, for compassion to the world, for the urgent reason of the necessities of man-for the benefit, for the delight alike of angels and men, perform thou, oh Asiat.Jour.N.S.VOL.26.No. 101. I

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