Chandragupta Maurya and His Times c19.9

c19.9

| *Asoka's Edicts.* | *Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra.* |
| 20. Devānāmpriya Priyadarśi Rājā desires that in all places should reside people of diverse sects [RE. VII]. | 20. This is apparently against Kauṭilya's injunctions that "*Pāshaṇḍas* and *Chaṇḍālas* are to dwell near the cremation ground (beyond the city)" [II. 4]. Elsewhere [II. 36], Kauṭilya also rules that no *Pāshaṇḍas* could be accommodated in a *Dharmaśālā* without the permission of the city officer, *Gopa*, and their abodes should be searched for suspicious characters. |
| 21. Reference to *vihāra-yātrā* and to *mṛigayā* and similar diversions to which Asoka's predecessors were addicted [RE. VIII]. | 21. Kauṭilya gives us details about these. He provides for a reserved forest for the king's *vihāra* [II. 2] and discusses fully the merits of *mṛigayā* [VIII. 3]. While Piśuna condemns it as a *vyasana* or indulgence chiefly for its dangers to a king, Kauṭilya approves of it as a *vyāyāma* or healthy physical exercise which destroys the excess of phlegm, bile, fat, and perspiration |