Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c11.s1.t2.1

c11.s1.t2.1

After the pioneering works of Prinsep and Norris, further progress in the study of the Aśokan inscriptions continued at a slow but steady pace in the fifth and sixth decades of the nineteenth century. The Bairāṭ (or Bhābrā, Calcutta-Bairāṭ, etc.; see 4.3.1.1.2 n. 69) rock inscription, discovered by T. S. Burt in 1840 and published by M. Kittoe in the same year,⁹⁰ was the first known example of the separate or minor rock edicts. In 1850⁹¹ H. H. Wilson published a detailed study with synoptic texts of the fourteen rock edicts in the three versions then known, namely, Girnār, Dhauli, and Kapur-di-Giri (i.e., Shāhbāzgaṛhī). Though far from authoritative, Wilson's edition represents a major step in the reading and understanding of the Aśokan inscriptions.⁹² Several of the Aśokan edicts known at the time were also published by Eugène Burnouf in Appendix 10 of *Le Lotus de la bonne loi*.⁹³