The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c29.73

v1.c29.73

Here we conclude our analytical appreciation of Açoka’s rule. But the personality which in so un-Indian a fashion pervades the whole of his proclamations—a personality which in its rather high-strung, and by consequence partly plaintive, energy recalls another flawless imperial saint, the Roman Marcus Aurelius—can be communicated only in his own words: and we are therefore justified in citing two of his edicts, one a normal specimen of their tone, and the second the solemn review of his measures, which, published in the twenty-seventh year from his consecration, we have ventured to designate as ‘the testament of Açoka.’