Age of the Nandas and Mauryas c12.s13.t11.7

c12.s13.t11.7

These edicts are valuable in another direction too. For, whether one believes or not in the traditions about the Buddhistic councils and the compilation of the Pāli canon soon after the Nirvāṇa of the Buddha or in the time of Aśoka, we have the irrefutable evidence of these edicts of Aśoka to show that some Buddhistic texts were in existence at this time. The Calcutta-Bairat edict names seven texts which have been traced in the canon. Of equal value are the inscriptions on the Bharhut and Sāñchī stūpas of the second and first centuries B.C.; while their carvings presuppose Buddhajātaka legends, the inscriptions there mention actually reciter (bhāṇaka), Sūtta reciter (Sūttāntika), one versed in the five Nikāyas (Pañcanekāyika), one versed in the Piṭakas (Peṭakin) and preacher of Dhamma (Dhammakathika). These epigraphical references are some indication that at the time of Aśoka there was a Buddhistic canonical literature to which the available Pāli canon bears general resemblance.