The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c16.s3.t2.41

v2.c16.s3.t2.41

The object of the first ordinance is threefold; *first*, to order punishment of murder to be imprisonment; *second*, to enjoin the reading of the ordinance in the month of Bhādra when the moon is in the constellation Tisya,—the same time when the Jain scriptures are now usually read as an act of great religious merit; and *third*, the ordination of a quinquennial humiliation, the counterpart of which still prevals in many Buddhist countries. The *stupha* or tope near which the reading is ordained is named *Anusatha Tupa* or *Kālānta Tupa*, the site of which has not yet been identified. The first part of the last ordinance is full of lacunæ, and its purport cannot be well defined. In the latter part it proclaims that a *stupha* is consecrated under the name of *Dubalabi*, for the promotion of “undisturbed meditation and for securing every blessing and happiness as to the concerns of this world and the world beyond.” The spot where the ordinance is inscribed is directed to be named *Mahāmata svāsatam*, or “the place of meditation of officers”. The ordinance is ordered to be publicly read out twice every year; once in the month of Bhādra, and again at the close of Phālguṇa, on both occasions when the moon is in the constellation Tisya. In the present day the two periods mentioned are held sacred by the Jains.