Asoka calls himself Priyadasi lâjâ Mâgadhe, 'Priyadasi, Râjâ of Magadha.' The form is Mâgadhe, not Mâqadhaṁ (Bloch), and the r is preserved in Priyadasi as well as three other words, (Hultzsch, J. R. A. S., 1911, p. 1113). I translate the royal style or protocole as 'His Grace the King of Magadha.'
The declaration of faith in Buddha, the Sacred Law (dhmṁma),and the Church (sahṁgha) may be illustrated by the formula of the Three Refuges or the Three Jewels as still used in Ceylon at the ordination of a monk, which is:—
'I put my trust in Buddha;
I put my trust in the Law;
I put my trust in the Priesthood;
Again I put my trust in Buddha;
Again I put my trust in the Law;
Again I put my trust in the Priesthood ;
Once more I put my trust in Buddha;
Once more I put my trust in the Law;
Once more I put my trust in the Priesthood.'
(Warren, Buddhism in Translations, 1900, p. 396.
The remark that 'whatsoever has been said by the Venerable Buddha has been well‘said’ is in substance a quotation from Aṅguttara, iv, p. 163, as cited by Poussin in The Way to Nirvâṇa, Cambridge, 1917, p. 106.
The text 'Thus the Good Law will long endure' occurs in both the Mahâvyutpatti and the Aǹguttara Nikáya of the Pâli Canon.
The main purpose of the document is to enumerate the seven passages in the Canon which Asoka considered to be the most important as guides of conduct, and to recommend those passages to the earnest study of all classes in the church, monastic or lay, male or female. Some difficulty has been experienced in identifying the passages referred to. I think that Mr. A. J. Edmunds rightly identifies the first passage with the famous First Sermon at Benares, on the grounds that that discourse is one of the most ancient Buddhist documents, that it could not well be ignored by Asoka, and that the Four Truths expounded in it are described in Udâna, v, 3, as Sâmukaṁsikâ
