The Antiquities of Orissa v2.c17.32.3

v2.c17.32.3

[46]), bears the Orissa edition of the celebrated edicts of Aśoka, and, as it would be absurd to suppose that edicts, intended for the good and guidance of mankind at large, had been put up in a desert place, it must follow that the place round or near Dhauli was not only largely inhabited, but was the provincial capital, or a place of such considerable importance as would justify the selection of it as the locale where the publication of the mandates of a distant suzerain would suffice for the whole province. The edicts were widely disseminated, but not very numerously. As yet only five complete sets have been met with on living rocks ; 1st, at Dhauli, on the eastern coast of India ; 2nd, at Girnār in Guzerat, on the western coast ; 3rd, at Shābhāzgheri in the Yusafzai country, on the extreme north-western frontier ; 4th, at Khālsi ; 5th, at Ganjām. Of solitary edicts on rocks there are : 1st, found at Bhābrā, which has been transferred to the Asiatic Society at Calcutta ; 2nd, at Bairāt ; 3rd, at Rūpanāth ; 4th, at Saserām ; of which the first has been translated by Major Kittoe, and the other three by Dr. G. Bühler in the *Indian Antiquary*. The edicts on the Pillars are also not numerous ; we have two at Delhi, one at Allahabad, one ar Arirāj, and one at Lauriyā. If we assume one set of edicts for every provincial capital, it would be much more than what available evidence at present would justify ;