Indian Epigraphy: A Guide to the Study of Inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the Other Indo-Aryan Languages c9.s2.t3.14

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.