Political History of Ancient India, from the Accession of Parikshit to the Extinction of the Gupta Dynasty c14.s3.10

c14.s3.10

Dr. Smith characterises² the Ceylonese tales which relate that Aśoka slew many of his brothers as silly because Aśoka certainly had brothers and sisters alive in the seventeenth and eighteenth years of his reign. whose households were objects of his anxious care. But we should remember that the Fifth Rock Edict refers only to the family establishments of his brothers (*olodhanesu bhātinam*) as existing. This does not necessarily imply that the brothers themselves were alive. We should however, admit that there is nothing to show, on the contrary, that the brothers were dead. The Fifth Rock Edict, in our opinion, proves nothing regarding the authenticity or untrustworthiness of the Ceylonese tradition. In the Forth Rock Edict Aśoka himself testifies to the growth of unseemly behaviour to kinsfolk and slaughter of living creatures.