Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c11.s37.17

c11.s37.17

In the ninth Rock-Edict Aśoka deprecates the observance of vulgar and useless (*kṣudra* and *nirarthaka*) ceremonies, particularly by women on sundry occasions as during illness, at marriage or child-birth, when setting out on a journey and so on. He wants such fruitless *mangalas* to be reduced to a minimum and that people should devote themselves more and more to the real *mangala* which is the practice of Dharma¹.