The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c10.s3.t5.7

c10.s3.t5.7

Regulations in regard to *ahimsâ* or non-slaughter i. e. sanctity of animal life appear also to have been laws in the strictest sense of the term. According to Pillar Edict V (*c B.* C. 243), parrots, starlings, adjutants and other animals were exempted from killing.⁴ By Rock Edict I (*c* B. C. 257) Asoka disallowed even the animal sacrifices indispensable for certain ceremonial performances.⁵ The humane legislation was thus arbitrary and intolerant enough to curtail religious liberty, or, at any rate, the freedom of practice. When, therefore, we read the touching self-complacent note in Rock Edict IV (c B. C. 257)¹ in which the monarch congratulates himself on the growth of non-killing and "prevention of cruelty to animate beings" in his reign, can we not believe that the ideals of a "moralist" had indeed in a considerable degree been rigidly transformed into positive law?