The Early History of India, from 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest, including the Invasion of Alexander the Great c21.22

c21.22

These extraordinary documents were followed by others specially concerning the conquered province of Kalinga, the purport of which has been referred to above. The earliest of the whole series seems to be Minor Rock Edict I, a short document, known in seven slightly variant forms. From it, as read with the longer compositions, we learn that Asoka was a lay disciple (*upāsaka*) for more than two and a half years after his conversion to Buddhism, and that during that period he did not exert himself strenuously.² But more than a year before the issue of his proclamations he had joined the Monastic Order (*saṁgha*) and had begun to devote earnest effort to promoting the cause of religion. The peculiar edict, known as the Bhābrū or Second Bairāt Rock Edict, in which the king enumerates seven passages of the scriptures as specially meriting the attention of both the clergy and the laity, apparently belongs to the same time.³