In the 27th and 28th year of his reign he composed another series of Edicts and this time had them carved in pillars not on rocks.  They are even more didactic than the Rock Edicts and contain an increasing number of references to the next world, as well as stricter regulations forbidding cruelty to animals, but the King remains tolerant and says[596] that the chief thing is that each man should live up to his own creed.  It is probable that at this time he had partially abdicated or at least abandoned some of the work of administration, for in Edict IV. he states that he has appointed Commissioners with discretion to award honours and penalties and that he feels secure like a man who has handed over his child to a skilful nurse.

In the two series of Rock and Pillar Edicts there is little dogmatic Buddhism.  It is true that the King’s anxiety as to the hereafter of his subjects and his solicitude for animals indicate thoughts busy with religious ideas, but still his Dhamma is generally defined in terms which do not go beyond morality, kindness and sympathy.  But in the Bhabru (less correctly Bhabra) Edict he recommends for study a series of scriptural passage which can be identified more or less certainly with portions of the Pali Pitakas.  In the Sarnath Edict he speaks not only as a Buddhist but as head of the Church.  He orders that monks or nuns who endeavour to create a schism shall put on lay costume and live outside their former monastery or convent.  He thus assumes the right to expel schismatics from the Sangha.  He goes on to say that a similar edict (i.e. an edict against schism) is to be inscribed for the benefit of the laity who are to come and see it on Uposatha days.  “And on the Uposatha days in all months every officer is to come for the Uposatha service to be inspired with confidence in this Edict and to learn it.”  Thus the King’s officers are to be Buddhists at least to the extent of attending the Uposatha ceremony, and the edict about schismatics is to be brought to the notice of the laity, which doubtless means that the laity are not to give alms to them.

It is probable that many more inscriptions remain to be discovered but none of those known allude to the convening of a Council and our information as to this meeting comes from the two Sinhalese Chronicles and the works of Buddhaghosa.  It is said to have been held two hundred and thirty-six years after the death of the Buddha[597] and to have been necessitated by the fact that the favour shown to the Sangha induced heretics to become members of it without abandoning their errors.  This occasioned disturbances and the King was advised to summon a sage called Tissa Moggaliputta (or Upagupta) then living in retirement and to place the affairs of the church in his hands.  He did so.  Tissa then composed the Katha-vatthu and presided over a council composed of one thousand arhats which established the true doctrine and fixed the present Pali Canon.