King Asoka and Buddhism - Urban Dharma

other suitable occasions on any day between two days of Tishya.In case you do this, you will be able to accomplish your duty.This record has been written here for the following purpose,viz., that the judicial officers of the city may strive to do their duty atall times and that the people within their charge suffer neither fromunnecessary imprisonment nor from unnecessary harassment.Hence I shall cause my Mahāmātras, who will be neitherharsh nor fierce in temperament, but will be gentle in action, toset out on tours of inspection, every five years, for the followingpurpose, viz., to ascertain if the judicial officers have realizedthis object of mine and are acting according to my instructions.Similarly, from Ujjayinī also, the Prince Viceroy will sendofficers of the same class every year for the same purpose andwill not allow three years to pass without such a mission beingsent out on tour. In the same way, officers will be deputed fromTakshaśilā also. When these Mahāmātras will set out on toursof inspection every year, then without neglecting their normalduties, they will have to ascertain the following, viz., if the localjudicial officers are acting according to the king’s instructions.(Emphasis mine.)Both edicts ring an unmistakable tone of pacification; in RE XV,through persuasion and propaganda that Aśoka is resolutelyintent on the welfare of the people, and in RE XVI, throughimpartiality in judicial administration. The people who are tobe so pacified or won over are explicitly called “antānam avijitānam”(as paraphrased by Sircar, “the people of the unconqueredterritories lying beyond the borders of my dominions”).The location of the two inscriptions in the maritime regionsof eastern Kalinga presents a further problem as to wherethese unconquered border areas could be. It is reasonable toassume that Samāpā and Tosalī were within Aśoka’s dominionsas his Mahāmātras could not have operated from themotherwise. In that case it was the littoral of Kalinga that was60