Page:History of India Vol 2.djvu/187

CHAPTER VII ASOKA MAUEYA AND HIS SUCCESSORS edicts are devoted mainly to the exposition, J- inculcation, and enforcement of a scheme of prac- tical ethics, or rule of conduct, which Asoka called Dhamma. No English word or phrase is exactly equiva- lent to the Prakrit dhamma (Sanskrit dharma), but the expression Law of Piety, or simply Piety, comes tolerably close to the meaning of the Indian term. The validity of this Law of Piety is assumed in the edicts, and no attempt is made to found it upon any theolog- ical or metaphysical basis. Theological ideas are sim- ply ignored by Asoka, as they were by his master Gau- tama, and the current Hindu philosophy of rebirth, inaccurately called metempsychosis, is taken for granted, and forms the background of the ethical teaching. The leading tenet of Asoka 's Buddhism, as of the cognate Jain system, and some varieties of Brahmanical Hinduism, was a passionate, uncompromising belief in the sanctity of animal life. The doctrine of the absolute, unconditional right of the meanest animal to retain the breath of life until the latest moment permitted by na- 153