to settle their quarrels, to control
the distribution of their legacies and pious gifts. He says of them in the
second part of the seventh 'pillar' edict, which he issued in the
twenty-ninth year of his reign, "My superintendents are occupied with
various charitable matters, they are also engaged with all sects of
ascetics and householders; I have so arranged that they will also be
occupied with the affairs of the _Sa[.m]gha_; likewise I have
arranged that they will be occupied with the Ajivika Brahma[n.]s; I have
arranged it that they will also be occupied with the Niga[n.][t.]ha".
[Footnote: See Senart, _Inscriptions de Piyadasi_, tom. II, p. 82.
Ed. VIII, l. 4. My translation differs from Senart's in some points
especially in relation to the construction. Conf. _Epigraphia
Indiea_, vol. II, pp. 272f.] The word _Sa[.m]gha_ serves here as
usual for the Buddhist monks. The Ajivikas, whose name completely
disappears later, are often named in the sacred writings of the Buddhists
and the Jainas as an influential sect. They enjoyed the special favour of
A['s]oka, who, as other inscriptions testify, caused several caves at
Barabar to be made into dwellings for their ascetics. [Footnote: See
_Ind. Antiquary_, vol. XX, pp. 361 ff.] As in the still older writings
of the Buddhist canon, the name Niga[n.][t.]ha here can refer only to the
followers of Vardhamana. As they are here, along with the other two
favourites, counted worthy of special mention, we may certainly conclude
that they were of no small importance at the time. Had they been without
influence and of small numbers A['s]oka would hardly have known of them,
or at least would not have singled them out from the other numerous
nameless sects of which he often speaks. It may also be supposed that they
were specially numerous in their old home, as A['s]oka's capital
Pa[t.]aliputra lay in this land. Whether they spread far over these
boundaries, cannot be ascertained.

On the other hand we possess two documents from the middle of the next
century which prove that they advanced into south-eastern India as far as
Kali[.n]ga. These are the inscriptions at Kha[n.][d.]agiri in Orissa, of
the great King Kharavela and his first wife, who governed the east coast
of India from the year 152 to 165 of the Maurya era that is, in the first
half of second century B.C.

The larger inscription, unfortunately very much disfigured, contains an
account of the life of Kharavela from his chil