Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c9.s2.t3: 4.3.1 Inscriptions of the Mauryan period (third century B.C.)
Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c9.s2.t3
- Language
- English
4.3.1 Inscriptions of the Mauryan period (third century B.C.)
c9.s2.t3.1
4.3.1.1 Inscriptions of Aśoka
c9.s2.t3.2
E. Hultzsch's edition of the Aśokan inscriptions in CII 1 is still the standard reference source, though out of date in several respects, especially in that it does not include inscriptions discovered since its publication in 1925 (Erraguḍi, Bombay-Sopārā, Amarāvatī, Sannati, ten versions of the minor rock edicts, and the Greek and Aramaic inscriptions). J. Bloch's *Les Inscriptions d'Asoka* (1950) is a convenient and reliable shorter text and translation edition, but it is also seriously outdated. Older editions such as those of É. Senart (*Les Inscriptions de Piyadassi*, 1881) and A. C. Woolner (*Aśoka Text and Glossary*, 1924) are superseded by the more recent ones. The new discoveries up to 1979 are presented in D. C. Sircar's *Aśokan Studies*. A new complete edition of the Aśokan inscriptions is an urgent desideratum (cf. 6.6).
c9.s2.t3.3
There are many other general editions and translations of the Aśokan edicts, too numerous to mention here. Among the abundant translations into English and many other languages, D. C. Sircar's *Inscriptions of Aśoka* (1967) is worthy of note as a reliable semipopular edition.
c9.s2.t3.4
Bibliographical information is provided in M. A. Mehendale's *Aśokan Inscriptions in India* (1948), 60–99; in F. R. Allchin and K. R. Norman's "Guide to the Aśokan Inscriptions" (*South Asian Studies* 1, 1985, 43–50); and in the bibliographic supplement (732–5) to the English edition of É. Lamotte's *History of Indian Buddhism from the Origins to the Śaka Era* (1988). The last two provide references to many of the new discoveries, except for the most recent ones (see 4.3.1.1.1).
c9.s2.t3.5
Several more recent books and monographs have concentrated on detailed critical editions of particular subgroups, by type or by location, within the Aśokan corpus. These include L. Alsdorf's *Aśokas Separatedikte von Dhauli und Jaugaḍa* (1962), U. Schneider's *Die Grossen Felsen-Edikte Aśokas* (1978), P. K. Andersen's *Studies in the Minor Rock Edicts of Aśoka*. Vol. 1: *Critical Edition* (1990), and U. Niklas' *Die Editionen der Aśoka-Inschriften von Erraguḍi* (1990).
c9.s2.t3.6
Articles on particular inscriptions or linguistic, textual, and historical aspects of the Aśokan records are far too numerous to list here comprehensively. Worthy of note among the more recent works are those of Ludwig Alsdorf, Collette Caillat, Klaus Janert, K. R. Norman, Ulrich Schneider, and D. C. Sircar; partial listings can be found in the bibliographic sources noted here, although no complete and up-to-date bibliography exists. The articles of some of these authors are conveniently available in collections of their articles such as Sircar's *Aśokan Studies*, Alsdorf's *Kleine Schriften*, and, especially, Norman's *Collected Papers*.
c9.s2.t3.7
The inscriptions of Aśoka, the great Mauryan emperor and patron of Buddhism who ruled ca. 272–232 B.C., are the best-known and most widely studied Indian inscriptions. But they are also highly untypical in several respects, first of all in their pattern of distribution, with the same or similar texts duplicated in widely scattered parts Some Major Epigraphic Sites [Figure: Map 3 Location of Aśokan Inscriptions]
c9.s2.t3.9
of the country. Their style and content are also unusual, for the most part involving proclamations of the emperor's moral and religious sentiments as expressed personally by him in the first person. Despite having been intensively studied for over a century and a half, the Aśokan inscriptions remain problematic in several respects, and many points of interpretation are still controversial.
c9.s2.t3.10
The Aśokan inscriptions are written in various MIA dialects which are referred to collectively as the "Aśokan Prakrits." The principal dialect is the eastern, which evidently represents the imperial language of the Mauryan dynasty and its capital at Pāṭaliputra (modern Patna, Bihar). All of the pillar edicts and several of the rock edicts are in this language. Other rock inscriptions, however, are written in the western (notably Girnār) and northwestern ("Gāndhārī"; Shāhbāzgaṛhī and Mānsehrā) dialects.⁶⁶
c9.s2.t3.11
⁶⁶ For details see section 3.1.2.
c9.s2.t3.12
With the exception of the northwestern rock edicts (and those in non-Indian languages, i.e., Greek and Aramaic; see 4.3.7.3), all of the Aśokan inscriptions are written in the earliest attested form of the Brāhmī script. Only the Shāhbāzgaṛhī and Mānsehrā rock inscriptions are in Kharoṣṭhī.⁶⁷
c9.s2.t3.13
⁶⁷ There is, however, one word, *lipikareṇa*, 'by the scribe', written in Kharoṣṭhī in the scribe's signature appended to the minor rock edicts (otherwise in Brāhmī) at Brahmagiri, Śiddāpura, and Jaṭiṅga-Rāmeśvara.
c9.s2.t3.14
The Aśokan inscriptions are the earliest Indian epigraphs which can be dated with any certainty, if not the absolutely earliest ones.⁶⁸ The inscriptions are dated in the regnal years of Aśoka, ranging from the eighth (rock edict XIII) to the twenty-seventh (pillar edict VII, Delhi-Toprā). These regnal dates can be correlated to absolute years, that is, approximately 264–245 B.C., from various external sources, mainly by the references by name to five contemporaneous Greek kings (*yonarāja*) in rock edict XIII.
c9.s2.t3.15
⁶⁸ See also sections 2.1.2 and 4.3.1.2.
c9.s2.t3.16
The inscriptions of Aśoka are divided into two main groups, rock edicts and pillar edicts. The former group is further subclassified into (major) rock edicts (including the separate rock edicts), minor rock edicts, and cave inscriptions; the latter into (major) pillar edicts and minor pillar edicts. The minor rock edicts were apparently the earliest group, followed by the (major) rock edicts, while the pillar edicts were the last to be promulgated.
c9.s2.t3.17
*4.3.1.1.1 Major rock edicts.* The major rock edicts consist of a set of fourteen proclamations inscribed on rocks at the following sites (arranged from north to south):
c9.s2.t3.18
1. Shāhbāzgaṛhī (Peshawar Dist., NWFP, Pakistan)
2. Mānsehrā (Hazara Dist., NWFP, Pakistan)
3. Kālsī (Dehra Dun Dist., UP)
4. Girnār (Junagadh Dist., Gujarat) (fig. 9)
5. Bombay-Sopārā (Thana Dist., Maharashtra; now in Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. Only two fragments of edicts VIII and IX.)
6. Erraguḍi (Kurnool Dist., AP)
c9.s2.t3.19
The rock edicts are concerned with such matters as the protection of animal life by decreasing the number of creatures killed in the royal kitchen (I); the provision by the king of public works such as medical clinics and tree planting (II); the promotion of public morality (III, IV, VII, XI, etc.); and respect for rival sects (*pāṣaṇḍa*, XII). Of special interest is edict XIII, by far the longest of the group, in which Aśoka expresses his regrets for the enormous loss of life and other suffering inflicted in the course of his conquest of Kaliṅga.
c9.s2.t3.20
FIGURE 9. Girnār (Junāgaḍh) rock with the Aśokan rock edicts and the inscriptions of Rudradāman and Skandagupta. From E. J. Rapson, *Ancient India from the Earliest Times to the First Century A.D.* (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1916), pl. I; reprinted with permission of Cambridge University Press.
c9.s2.t3.21
Two further sets of rock edicts from the Kaliṅga territory contain edicts I–X and XIV, but in place of XI–XIII have two “separate rock edicts”:
c9.s2.t3.22
7. Jaugaḍa (Ganjam Dist., Orissa)
8. Dhauli (Puri Dist., Orissa)
c9.s2.t3.23
The two separate edicts at Jaugaḍa and Dhauli contain exhortations to the royal officers (*mahāmātra*) at Samāpā and Tosalī, respectively, to respect and enforce the king’s wishes. Finally, a recently discovered stone slab containing fragments of the so-called Kaliṅga edicts XII and XIV and of separate edicts I and II has been found outside of the Kaliṅga region:
c9.s2.t3.24
9. Sannati (Gulbarga Dist., Karnataka)
c9.s2.t3.25
*4.3.1.1.2 Minor rock edicts.* The minor rock edicts are now known from seventeen sites (arranged from north to south):
c9.s2.t3.26
1. New Delhi (also referred to as Amar Colony or Bahapur; Delhi Union Territory)
2. Bairāṭ (Jaipur Dist., Rajasthan)
3. Gujjarā (Datia Dist., MP)
4. Sahasrām (Rohtas [formerly Shahabad] Dist., Bihar)
5. Ahraurā (Mirzapur Dist., UP)
6. Rūpnāth (Jabalpur Dist., MP)
7. Pāṅguṛāriā (Sehore Dist., MP)
8. Maski (Raichur Dist., Karnataka)
9. Gavīmaṭh (Raichur Dist., Karnataka)
10. Pālkīguṇḍu (Raichur Dist., Karnataka)
11. Niṭṭūr (Bellary Dist., Karnataka)
12. Uḍegoḷam (Bellary Dist., Karnataka)
13. Rājula-Maṇḍagiri (Kurnool Dist., AP)
14. Erraguḍi (Kurnool Dist., AP)
15. Brahmagiri (Chitradurga Dist., Karnataka)
16. Śiddāpura (Chitradurga Dist., Karnataka)
17. Jaṭiṅga-Rāmeśvara (Chitradurga Dist., Karnataka)
c9.s2.t3.27
The first ten of these sites contain the text of minor rock edict I only, which describes Aśoka's increased religious zeal and exhorts his subjects to pursue similar goals. Numbers 11–17 also include minor rock edict II (in varying forms), recommending respectful behavior toward parents, elders, and teachers. Several of the minor rock edicts are recent discoveries, the newest among them being Ahraurā (1961), New Delhi (1966), Pāṅguṛāriā (1976), and Niṭṭūr and Uḍegoḷam (1977).
c9.s2.t3.28
An individual rock edict, known only in one copy, was also found at Bairāṭ and is now in the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.⁶⁹ It is addressed directly to the Buddhist community (*saṃgha*) and recommends seven texts for their study (see 7.3.2.2).
c9.s2.t3.29
⁶⁹ This inscription is sometimes referred to by other names such as Calcutta-Bairāṭ, Bhābrā, Bhairāṭ-Bhābrā, minor rock edict III, etc.
c9.s2.t3.30
Three cave inscriptions in the Barābar hills (Gaya Dist., Bihar) record the gift of the caves to the Ājīvikas by a King Piyadasī, who is presumably Aśoka.
c9.s2.t3.31
*4.3.1.1.3 Pillar edicts.* The pillar edicts comprise a basic set of six edicts preserved on Mauryan sandstone pillars in six places:⁷⁰
c9.s2.t3.32
⁷⁰ In addition, there has recently come to light a small fragment from somewhere in northern Pakistan of what seems to be Aśokan pillar edict VI; see K. R. Norman, *South Asian Studies* 4, 1988, 100–2. There is, however, considerable doubt as to its authenticity (op. cit., 101 n. 6).
c9.s2.t3.33
1. Delhi-Toprā⁷¹
2. Delhi-Mīraṭh⁷²
3. Lauṛiyā-Ararāj (East Champaran Dist., Bihar)
4. Lauṛiyā-Nandangaṛh (West Champaran Dist., Bihar) (fig. 10)
5. Rāmpurvā (West Champaran Dist., Bihar)
6. Allahabad-Kosam.⁷³
c9.s2.t3.34
⁷¹ The pillar was originally in Toprā, Ambala Dist., Haryana, but was brought to Delhi by Fīrūz Shāh Tughluq in or around A.D. 1368 and installed in his fort there.
c9.s2.t3.35
⁷² The pillar was originally in Mīraṭh (Meerut), Mirath Dist., UP, but was also transported to Delhi by Fīrūz Shāh and erected there on The Ridge.
c9.s2.t3.36
⁷³ The pillar is now in the fort at Allahabad but is generally believed to have been brought there from Kosam (Kauśāmbī), Allahabad Dist., UP.
c9.s2.t3.37
FIGURE 10. Lauṛiyā-Nandangaṛh Aśokan pillar. Photograph courtesy of Frederick Asher.
c9.s2.t3.38
The six basic pillar edicts, which unlike the rock edicts show only minor textual and dialectal
c9.s2.t3.39
4.3.1.1.4 *Minor pillar edicts.* Two of the minor pillar edicts, at
c9.s2.t3.40
1. Sāñcī
2. Sārnāth
c9.s2.t3.41
contain similar but more extensive texts on the banishment of schismatics. The latter adds a note on Two short inscriptions from the Sītābeṅgā and Jogīmāṟā caves on the Rāmgaṛh hill (ASIAR 1903–4, 123–31) are estimated on paleographic grounds to belong to about the third century b.c. The Jogīmāṟā inscription is particularly interesting both for its language, being the only pure epigraphic specimen of Māgadhī (see 3.1.3) and for its unusual content (4.1.10), recording the love of one Devadina for Śutanukā, a temple prostitute (*devadaśikyi*).⁷⁵
c9.s2.t3.42
⁷⁵ Several other early Brāhmī inscriptions, such as Deoṭek (V. V. Mirashi, *Studies in Indology* I.109–17) and Barḷī (K. P. Jayaswal, JBORS 16, 1930, 67–8) have been attributed by some scholars to the Mauryan, or even the pre-Mauryan period. But more cautious scholars are generally inclined to attribute these records to the Śuṅga period on the grounds of paleographic features which are slightly more advanced than Aśokan Brāhmī.