Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s20.46

c11.s20.46

His own inscriptions clearly reveal to us the chief stages in the history of his reign and the motives underlying his activities. For more than a century these famous records have been the subject of patient and critical study by generations of scholars, and as a result of this study there has emerged a general agreement about the meaning of all inscriptions, though a few expressions still remain obscure. But the inscriptions are by no means evenly spread over the reign; most of them fall into two large groups, one about the thirteenth and fourteenth years after the king's coronation, and another in the twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth years. Though they do mention a few events with the time of their occurrence, they are far from being a full record of the reign. In this respect they constitute a complete contrast to the difficult Hathigumpha inscription of Kharavela, and the much later prasastis of the various mediaeval dynasties.