DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

198 BAN ON SACRIFICES [7.3
meritorious feat even in a generation which saw the Egyptian
hieroglyphics and the first cuneiform writings again restored to human
knowledge. They form so great a contrast to the works about Alexander,
and to what the surviving fragments of Megasthenes would have led
anyone to expect about the Magadhan ruler, that it is necessary to
pass them in review.
(RE. 1) : “This rescript on dhamma (morality) has been caused to be written by
king Piyadasi, Beloved-of-the-gods. Here (in my kingdom) no living being must be
killed and sacrificed. And no samaja, festival meeting must be held. For king Piyadasi
Beloved-of-the-gods sees much evil in festival meetings. Nevertheless, there are some
(sorts of) festival meetings which are also considered meritorious by king Piyadasi..
.Formerly in the kitchen of king Piyadasi... many hundred thousands of animals were
killed daily for making curry. But now,... only three animals are being killed for curry:
two peacocks and one deer, though even this deer not regularly. Even these three
animals shall not be killed in the future.”
In commenting on this, we have always to ask why Asoka thought
it necessary to put such words, for the first time, in public,
imperishable form, as against all else he could have said. The form of his
inscriptions, of his lion capital, of the vanished palace, were all supposedly
borrowed (according to European historians of today) from the
inscriptions and palace of Darius. He could not have seen the former;
the latter had been fired at one of Alexander’s orgies. Asokan sculptures
definitely adapted from Indian woodwork. These simple words
deliberately avoid the lofty attitude and sonorous rhetorical periods of
Darius, who proclaimed himself “Greek king, king of kings, king of
provinces of diverse nationality, king of this mighty earth even to a far
distance... Ahuramazda beheld this world embattled, then handed it
over to me, made me to be its king, and I was king. According to the
desire of Ahuramazda have I re-established (the shaken earth) into
its place”. Asoka never claims to be on special terms with the
Almighty, nor does he boast of his lineage and his conquests. The
sentiment is clear enough. The movement for banning vedic sacrifices,
which started’ with Magadhan religions, is here completed. The sacrifices
went out of fashion with the pastoral economy when independent petty
kingdoms had been wiped out. Here the remnant, animal killing at some