DDK HistoryF.p65 - CSIR

7.3J KINSHIP ; TRACK ROUTES 199
kind of tumultuous T saturnalia (Arth. 1.21, 2.25, 5.2 ; dearly religious,
13.5* ; cf. also Jat. 154, 438, 545 and E. J. Hardy in Album Kern
(Leiden 1903), p. 61-66 for a far-fetched theory of local origin at
Rajglr), is also forbidden, as it already had been for soldiers (Arth. 10.1).
The sacrifices might have revived if the samaja were permitted. The
occasional samaja remains to this day, as in the vetala sacrifices
mentioned in the second chapter. The grand annual holi festival (without
sacrifice, but with obscene shouts, drinking, songs, wrestling matches
and bonfires) is a fertility orgy that may be traced back to the late stone
age. Large mesolithic deposits of ashes, with a few animal bones (from
the sacrifices), and rain-compacted strata prove annual or periodic
recurrence in the same locality 7 of sacrifice associated with gigantic
holi bonfires. Here is proof that the agrarian economy had won at last;
the pastoral life and ritual were finally defeated.
(RE. 2). “Everywhere in the dominions of king Piyadasi Beloved-of-the-gods
and likewise among his borderers such as the Codas, the Pandyas, the Satiyaputa,
the Keralaputa, even Tamraparni, the Yona king Antiyaka, and also the kings who are
neighbours of this Anti-yaka — everywhere two kinds of medical treatment were established
by king Piyadasi Beloved-of-the-gods : medical treatment for men and medical treatment
for beasts. And wherever there were no herbs that are beneficial to men and beneficial
to cattle, everywhere they were caused to be imported and to be planted. On the
roads wells were caused to be dug, and trees were caused to be planted for the use
of cattle and men “,
This pious action is also important for what it implies. First, that there
were no other kings in India comparable in status to the Magadhan
absolute monarch : all the Indian names are those of tribes or of territories.
It is assumed that’ there must have been kings ‘. Alexander’s tribal
opponents have regularly been saddled with ‘ rajas’ by modern historians,
though tribal chiefs were never absolute even when hereditary, while
they could also be elective. The contrast has been ignored with Asoka’s
explicit mention of Greek kings by name.
* Arth. 13.5 advises the king to placate newly conquered people by “ offering due
reverence to the local deities, somajas, and viharas (desa-daivata-samasotsavaviharesu
ca bhaktim anuvartetd) “. So, the samaja had to be respected ; the abolition
by Asoka went against all precedent and previous exercise of royal power.